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JC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL 

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LIBRARY  F 

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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


156.  BEDELL,  G.  T.  (of  Fayetteville, 
N.  C),  The  Valley  of  Bones.  Phila., 
1833.  $4.50 

157.      Sermon   by.      N.    Y.,    1828. 

$1.50 

158.  Fellow  Workers.  Two  Ser- 
mons.    N.  Y.,  1859.  $2.00 

159.     Tyng,    S.    H.,    Memoir    of 

Gregory     T.     Bedell.       Portrait.       Phila., 
1836.  $3.00 

Life    in    Fayetteville,    N.    C. 


••••^^ 

^•^•%r^' 

v',%>.  ^ 

—          « 

a\>/ 

^^^^icy^<^  S.  /a!y^^ 


»  .  .  .   ^  •  • 


ONWARD 


ONWARD; 


CHRISTIAN   PROGRESSION, 


GREGORY    T.    BEDELL,    D.  D. 


PIIILADELPniA: 

HENRY  PERKINS,  134  CHESTNUT  ST. 

PERKINS  &  MARVIN,  BOSTON. 


If?  3  6. 


Entered  according  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year 
1836,  by  Henry  Perkins,  in  the  Office  of  the  Clerk  of 
the  District  Court  of  the  Eastern  District  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. 


WILLIAM   STATELY,  PRISTEH, 

No.  12  Pear  Street. 


< 


DA 


ADVERTISEMENT. 

{];;  This  little  work  was  prepared  for  the 

CO 

j^  publisher  by  the  lamented  author,  a  lit- 

-c  tie  before  his  departure  from  the  world. 

^  It  is  now  printed  as  found  among  his  pa- 
pers arranged  for  this  purpose.  It  is  pre- 

'*"  sumed  that  none  can  read  it  now,  but 
in 

^  with  increased  interest,  and  it  is  present- 

o  . 

^  ed  to  the  public  in  the  hope  that  it  will  be 

.  made,  by  God's  Holy  Spirit,  an  instru- 

^  ment  of  good. 

>  Philadelphia,  June,  18.36, 
J.-1 


a2 


461 808 


ONWARD; 


OR 

CHRISTIAN   PROGRESSION. 


"  Speak  to  the  childres^  of  Iskael  that  they 

GO  FOR-WAEB." ExoduS  xlv.  15. 

There  are  few,  if  any,  among  the  readers  of 
this  little  book,  who  are  ignorant  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  history  of  the  children  of  Israel  to 
which  the  passage  I  have  placed  at  the  head 
of  this  little  work  particularly  belongs.  On 
the  occasion  to  which  it  refers,  their  emer- 
gency was  great, — their  situation  one  of  ex- 
traordinary difficulty.     They  had  come  out 


8  ON  W  A  R  D. 

from  the  "land  of  Egypt  and  the  liouse  of 
bondage ;"  and  God  liad  led  ihcm  into 
a  situation  from  which  they  as  well  as 
their  cncmicp,  supposed  there  was  no  escape. 
In  their  rear,  they  had  the  Egyptian  array  in 
the  hot  pursuit,  led  on  by  their  king  in  per- 
son, infuriated  as  he  was  by  having  lost  their 
profitable  services,  and  panting  for  revenge 
in  consequence  of  having  been  so  often  baf- 
fled. In  their  front  was  the  Red  Sea,  to  try 
which  M'ould  have  been  madness,  as  they 
might  naturally  have  supposed.  In  this  dis- 
astrous position  of  their  afl'airs,  in  which 
there  appeared  no  alternative  between  the 
fearful  choice  of  perishing  in  the  waves;  and 
of  being  carried  back  into  an  ignominious 
and  cruel  slavery,  they  cried,  though  not 
with  child-like  confidence,  unto  the  Lord, 
and  superadded  murmuring  against  their  lead- 
er and  benefactor,  Moses.  They  seem  soon 
to  have  forgotten  the  hand  which  had  been 


ONWARD.  » 

outstretched,  mighty  for  their  deliverance 
thus  far ;  and  strange  as  it  may  be,  they  seem 
even  to  have  distrusted  that  power  whose 
presence  had  all  along  been  visible,  in  the 
guiding  pillar  of  the  cloud  and  fire  which 
went  before  the  camp.  But  shut  up  as  they 
were  by  the  land,  with  their  foes  in  the  rear, 
and  apparent  inevitable  death  in  front,  with 
what  astonishment  must  they  have  received 
the  singular  command  thus  given  by  God  to 
Moses,  "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel, 
that  they  go  forward." 

"Go  forward" — What!  madly  rush  to 
death  amidst  the  waves  of  the  sea  ? — Suffer 
me  here  to  interpose  a  remark,  which  I  look 
upon  as  containing  one  of  the  most  important 
positions  relative  to  the  matter  of  religion — 
a  command  from  God,  can  never  in  its  own 
nature  be  impracticable ; — such  a  command 
seems  in  some  way  connected  with  a  pro- 
raise  on  the  part  of  God ;  and  it  is  this  which 


10  ONWARD. 

makes  llie  way  of  duty  not  only  peremptory, 
but  on  the  whole  practicable  and  easy. — 
Could  the  Israelites  suppose,  that  Cod  had 
commanded  them  to  go  forward,  and  perish  ? 
No !  They  received  the  order  and  they 
obeyed  it,  and  the  power  of  God  appeared 
greatly  in  their  behalf.  They  went  forward, 
and  the  sea,  obedient  to  the  command  of 
God,  stood  as  a  "  wall  unto  them  on  the 
right  hand,  and  on  the  left."  The  chosen 
people  passed  over  "  dfy  shod  through  the 
midst  of  the  sea."  Their  enemies  pursued, 
but  at  the  same  command  of  God,  the  "  sea 
came  into  its  place  again,"  when  the  order 
which  for  a  while  had  suspended  the  opera- 
tion of  the  usual  laws  of  nature  was  recalled ; 
and  the  Egyptians  perished  in  the  mighty 
waters — the  greatest  deliverance  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  gi-catest  overthrow  on  the 
other,  which  stand  on  the  records  of  his- 
torv. 


ONWARD.  11 

Now  I  have  not  introduced  these  facts  to 
your  attention  for  the  purpose  of  entering 
into  any  remarks,  relating  particularly  to 
the  Israelitish  history.  Taken  as  a  mere  in- 
sulated direction,  tlie  command  contains  mat- 
ter of  most  important  instruction,  and  is  every 
way  adapted  to  the  purposes  of  most  valuable 
practical  remarks.  It  is  a  direction  suited 
in  a  very  special  manner  to  the  condition  of 
all  professing  Christians  ;  and  is  meant  to 
be  applied  with  a  peculiar  emphasis  to  any 
who  Have  recently  taken  on  themselves  a 
public  profession  of  the  rehgion  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

In  this  view  of  the  subject  it  will  be  my 
purpose  to  consider  the  words  of  the  text  at 
the  head  of  this  little  book. 

I.  As  implying  a  setting  out  m  the  way  of 
religion. 


12  O  N  W  A  R  D, 

II.  As  opposed  to  standing  still  in  reli- 
gion. 

III.  As  opposed  to  a  retrograde  move- 
ment. 

IV.  As  demanding  advancement. 

These  are  the  points  to  whicli,  in  this  little 
work,  the  attention  of  my  readers  will  be  di- 
rected. 

I.  Then  the  words  before  us  imply  that 
you  have  actually  set  out  in  the  way  of  re- 
ligion. 

If  the  Israelites  had  continued  in  the  land 
of  Egypt,  this  command  would  never  have 
been  given.  It  only  became  proper,  as  they 
had  actually  left  the  land  of  their  captivity. 
If  they  had  been  disposed  to  remain  in  their 
bondage,  the  only  language  which  would 
have  been  appropriate  is  such  as  this — "  Up 
— get  you  out  of  this  land."  So  in  refer- 
ence to  ourselves,  a  command  of  this  kind 


ONWARD.  13 

implies,  that  ^ve  have  entered  upon  the 
march  of  religion.  It  is  inappropriate  to 
those  who  are  in  a  state  of  carelessness  and 
unconcern  :  and  the  only  language  which  is 
suitable  to  them  is  such  as  fell  from  the  an- 
gel's lips  when  commissioned  to  destroy  the 
cities  of  the  plain,  he  said  to  Lot,  "  Escape 
for  thy  life,  look  not  behind  thee,  neither 
stay  thou  in  all  the  plain,  lest  thou  be  con- 
sumed." I  limit  the  exhortation  then  to 
those  who  may  be  said  to  have  actually  set 
out  in  the  way  of  religion ;  and  to  these  the 
Lord  says — "  Speak,  that  they  go  forward." 
But  how  are  we  to  ascertain  these,  and  how 
are  we  to  describe  and  point  them  out  ?  and 
how  are  any  to  know  whether  they  are  par- 
ticularly addressed  ?  This  is  a  point  of  de- 
licate determination  ;  but  as  we  are  command- 
ed in  the  Scriptures  not  to  despise  the  day 
of  small  things,  I  wish  to  bring  this  matter 
down  so  as  to  make  it  embrace  as  large  a 

B 


14  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

number  as  may  be  consistent  wiili  Gospel 
faithfulness.  I  do  not  think  that  the  indivi- 
dual who  has  merely  some  occasional  and 
momentary  thought  on  the  subject  of  reli- 
gion can  be  said  to  have  set  out  from  the 
land  of  his  captivity ;  for  I  suppose  that  there 
are  very  few,  even  of  tlie  most  careless  and 
unconcerned,  who  do  not  sometimes  think  on 
the  subject.  Through  many  an  one's  ima- 
gination it  flits,  just  as  the  shadow  of  a  cloud 
skims  rapidly  over  the  earth  and  leaves  not 
a  trace  behind;  and  though  many  clouds, 
chasing  each  other  through  the  vault  of  hea- 
ven when  the  sun  is  high,  may  cause  their 
shadows  to  pass  as  swiftly  before  us,  yet 
none  of  them  singly,  nor  do  all  of  them 
combined,  leave  any  permanent  impression. 
You  cannot  tell,  search  you  how  much 
you  please — you  cannot  tell  M-here  they 
have  been.  So  vague  thoughts  pass  through 
the    mind    on    the   subject    of   religion. — 


ONWARD.  15 

All  mere  occasional  thoughts  have  proved  as 
the  early  cloud  and  the  morning  dew  which 
pass  speedily  away.  The  very  least  of  the 
circumstances  which  may  be  allowed  to  in- 
dicate that  an  individual  has  even  turned  his 
attention  to  religion,  is — that  he  or  she  has 
been  induced  to  think  most  seriously  on  the 
dismal  nature  of  their  alienation  from  God 
by  sin,  to  search  with  an  awakened  interest 
the  pages  of  God's  book  for  the  means  and 
methods  of  deliverance,  and  is  constrained  to 
pray  earnestly  and  perseveringly  that  the 
chains  of  this  wretched  captivity  may  be 
broken.  If  persons  come  short  of  these  pre- 
liminary requirements,  I  believe  that  they 
are  not  to  be  considered  as  having  taken  even 
one  step  in  the  way  of  religion.  They  are 
yet  in  the  very  land  of  Egypt,  and  they  can- 
not with  any  reasonable  propriety  be  exhort- 
ed to  go  forward,  on  the  plain  and  melan- 
choly principle,  that  they  have  not  yet  set 


16  ONWARD. 

out  at  all.  I  have  looked  at  this  subject 
again  and  airain,  fearful  lest  1  should  by  any 
means  be  mistaken,  and  after  a  verj'  full  and 
prudent  examination,  I  am  fully  persuaded 
that  only  those  who  have  been  led  by  the 
Spirit  of  God,  so  seriously  to  think  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  as  to  feci  tlicir  own  sin- 
fulness and  condemnation,  their  need  of  a 
Saviour  and  his  sanctifying  grace,  and  who 
have  boldly  determined  that  let  others  pur- 
sue what  course  they  please,  as  for  them 
they  will  serve  the  Lord,  forsake  sin,  and 
live  unto  holiness  ;  it  is  only  these  who  in 
the  very  lowest  sense  of  the  expression 
may  be  said  to  have  left  the  land  of  Egj'pt, 
to  try  the  dangers  and  the  difficulties  of  the 
wilderness  on  their  onward  way  to  Canaan ; 
and  of  consequence,  to  none  short  of  such  are 
we  authorized  to  consider  the  exhortation — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go   forward ;"    for   progression   in   religion 


ONWARD.  17 

were  impossible  until  its  first  step  be  taken. 
Are  there  any  of  my  readers  then,  who  can 
really  and  conscientiously  believe  that  reli- 
gion is  becoming  a  matter  of  exceeding  great 
and  overpowering  interest  ?  Do  any  of  them 
begin  to  think  that  the  salvation  of  their 
souls  is  of  supreme  importance,  and  are  they 
pushing  on  the  vital  investigation  of  the  Gos- 
pel, "  What  shall  we  do  to  be  saved  ?" — 
Have  they  any  profitable  conception  of  their 
sinfulness,  and  of  the  alienation  of  their 
hearts  from  God  ?  Do  they  begin  to  take  de- 
light in  searching  the  word  of  God  ?  Do 
they  feel  that  they  are  absolutely  constrained 
to  prayer  for  pardon,  for  grace,  and  for  salva- 
tion ?  Have  they  experienced  sorrow  for 
sin  and  a  genuine  repentance  ?  Have  they 
felt  the  need  of  a  Saviour,  and  are  they  rest- 
ing upon  him  by  faith  ?  Do  they  desire  to 
have  their  souls  in  all  their  powers  and  fa- 
culties entirely  conformed  to  God  ?  If  they 
b2 


18  ONWARD. 

do — and  I  desire  them  to  be  honest  and  faith- 
ful in  this  thing — if  they  do,  there  is  with 
certainty  a  step  taken  in  the  way  to  Canaan, 
and  the  Lord  speaks  to  them  individually, 
and  says — "  Go  forward." 

But  this  subject  suffers  a  remarkable  adap- 
tation to  the  interesting  circumstances  of 
tliose  who  have  lately,  in  the  sight  of  a  heart- 
searching  God,  and  in  the  presence  of  his 
Church,  taken  upon  themselves  the  solemn 
obligations  of  the  baptismal  covenant,  or 
those  who  have  reiterated  the  same  in  tlie 
rite  of  confirmation,  or  those  who  have 
sought  to  seal  all  their  vows  by  an  humble 
participation  of  the  symbols  of  the  broken 
body  and  blood  of  their  Master  and  ordy  Sa- 
viour, Jesus  Christ.  By  these  acts,  open  and 
public  to  the  observation  of  men  on  earth, 
and  angels  in  heaven,  all  such  have  professed 
to  enter  into  the  way  of  religion,  and  to  leave 
tlie  land  and  the  slavery  of  Egypt.     I  can- 


ONWARD.  19 

not,  neither  would  I  were  I  able,  judge  the 
motives  by  which  any  have  been  actuated. 
I  have  taken  it  for  granted,  all  beyond  is  a 
matter  for  God  to  know,  and  for  him  and 
themselves  to  determine ;  I  have  taken  it 
for  granted  that  they  have  looked  at  this 
thing  with  understanding  hearts  and  enlight- 
ened consciences.  If  they  have,  these  things 
constitute  their  attestation,  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  men,  that  they  have  deliberately 
chosen  the  path  of  devotion  to  the  love  and 
service  of  their  Saviour.  These  steps  in 
their  religious  course  are  taken.  It  remains 
but  that  they  give  heed  to  the  exhortation 
before  us — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward." 

But  those  who  have  lately  made  a  profes- 
sion of  religion,  embrace  but  a  small  num- 
ber of  those  whom  I  would  fain  consider  as 
having  left  the  land  of  Egypt  and  the  house 
of  bondage.     There  are  among  my  readers. 


20  O  N  W  A  U  P. 

many  wlio  liavc  been  long  professors  of  re- 
ligion ;  and  while  I  have  neither  the  courage 
nor  the  failli  to  believe  that  all  such  are  spi- 
ritual in  heart,  and  holy  in  conversation,  and 
consistent  in  life  ;  a  profession  of  religion  is 
the  only  outward  criterion  by  M'hich  we  are 
to  form  our  judgment.  It  is  truly  a  melan- 
choly declaration,  that  all  are  not  Israel  who 
are  of  Israel ;  and  that  we  may  be  loud  in 
the  declaration — "  The  temple  of  the  Lord — 
the  temple  of  the  Lord — the  temple  of  the 
Lord  are  these,"  and  yet  have  no  part  or 
lot  in  the  matter,  because  our  hearts  are  not 
right  in  the  sight  of  God.  But  to  the  eye 
of  mortal  there  is  no  visible  line  of  demarka- 
tion  but  that  which  is  drawn  to  separate  be- 
tween those  who  do,  and  those  who  do  not 
make  an  open  profession  of  religion.  In 
these  remarks,  then,  I  conclude  in  my  posi- 
tion all  who  have  outwardly  professed  reli- 
gion ;  and  I  will  in  the  progress  of  my  ad- 


ONWARD.  21 

dress  to  them,  give  some  marks  by  which  we 
may  form  a  judgment  of  their  spiritual  condi- 
tion, while  I  also  repeat  to  them  the  exhor- 
tation of  the  Lord  by  the  mouth  of  his  ser- 
vant Moses — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Is- 
rael that  they  go  forward. 

Having  thus  sought  to  settle  the  prelimi- 
nary question,  I  am  at  liberty  to  take  up  my 

lid.  division,  and  to  declare  that  these 
words  are  opposed  to  standing  still  in  reli- 
gion. 

Unfortunately  for  our  religious  progression, 
the  conscience  is  by  far  too  easily  satisfied ; 
and  many  an  individual  having  advanced  a 
certain  small  distance,  seems  contented  with 
that  advancement,  and  disposed  to  stop  short 
in  the  course.  This  is  nearly  as  bad  a  si- 
tuation, and  will  eventually,  if  not  urged  on- 
ward, prove  as  ruinous  a  situation  as  not  to 
have  set  out.     The  Israelites  had  left  Egypt, 


22  O  N  W  A  K  D. 

and  they  had  reached  the  borders  of  the  Red 
Sea.  But  suppose  that  the  camp  had  there 
become  stationary  ;  suppose  they  had  refused 
to  move  onward,  and  obstinately  determined 
to  stay  where  they  then  were,  is  it  reasona- 
ble to  suppose  that  the  Lord  would  have  in- 
terposed between  them  and  their  enemies  ? 
No.  The  Egyptian  army  would  unques- 
tionably have  overtaken  them,  and  the  con- 
sequence would  have  been  either  their  return 
to  captivity,  or  their  total  destruction  on  the 
spot  where  they  halted.  So  in  the  matter  of 
personal  religion.  If  we  are  the  least  dis- 
posed to  stop  in  our  religious  course,  we 
shall  be  overtaken  by  the  enemy,  for  in  no 
part  of  the  Christian  life  are  his  steps  far  be- 
hind us.  And  if  we  either  think  that  we 
have  gone  far  enough,  or  if  we  gi'ow  tired, 
and  careless,  and  indifferent,  and  lukewarm, 
he  Mill  assuredly  overtake  us,  and  lead  us 
back  into  the  captivity  from  which  for  a  few 


ONWARD.  23 

moments  we  had  vainly  imagined  that  we 
had  escaped.  Then  will  the  chains  of  our 
slavery  be  tenfold  more  difficult  to  break, 
and  our  bondage  infinitely  more  hopeless. 
There  must,  there  can  be  no  standing  still  in 
religion  ;  it  is,  by  the  necessity  of  the  case, 
progressive  or  retrograde. 

In  relation  to  all  those  who  have  so  lately 
taken  upon  themselves,  both  in  confirmation ' 
and  the  Lord's  supper,  the  solemn  obliga- 
tions of  a  covenant  with  God,  I  have  as- 
sumed it  as  a  principle  that  they  have  actually 
set  out  in  the  path  of  religion.  I  tell  them, 
and  I  tell  at  the  same  time  every  professing 
Christian  who  has  any  part  or  lot  in  the 
matter,  that  for  you  there  is  now  no  stopping 
place  this  side  eternity.  You  must  press 
forward,  or  you  have  lost  all  your  previous 
pains,  and  will  lose  your  souls.  The  mes- 
sage which  I  bear  from  God  to  your  souls 
is — no  halting;  one  lingering  step  is   akin 


24  ONWARD, 

to  ruin — "  Spoak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward." 

III.  Indissohibly  connected  with  the  last 
idea,  I  remark,  tliat  the  command  of  the  text 
is  opposed  to  a  retrograde  movement. 

It  is  declared  in  Scripture,  and  it  is  con- 
firmed by  our  experience,  that  the  heart  is 
deceitful  above  all  things  and  desperately 
wicked  ;  and  on  no  subject  is  this  self-de- 
ception practised  more  ruinously  than  on  the 
great  and  paramount  subject  of  religion. 
Many  begin  to  raise  a  superstructure  before 
the  foundation  is  well  laid  ;  and  consequent- 
ly, they  need  not  wonder  why  the  building 
totters  and  falls.  This  is  nothing  more  tlian 
might  have  been  anticipated.  Many  persons, 
carried  away  by  the  mere  impulse  of  awa- 
kened sensibility,  are  really  disposed  to 
think  that  they  have  taken  a  decided  stand 
on  the  Lord's  side ;  and  under  this  impulse, 


ONWARD.  35 

especially  if  it  is  strong,  and  in  persons  of 
ardent  temperament,  they  may  nm,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, well  for  a  season.  But  defection 
sooner  or  later  comes,  and  destroys  all  the 
favourable  opinions  which  others  had  enter- 
tained. Their  religion,  if  it  may  be  called 
so  with  any  thing  like  propriety,  is  compared 
by  our  Saviour  to  seed  sown  on  rocky  places, 
where  the  ground  was  light  and  the  soil  had 
no  depth  ;  and  as  the  roots  could  not  strike 
deep,  as  soon  as  the  sun  was  up,  and  poured 
down  some  of  the  fierceness  of  his  beams, 
the  goodly-appearing  plant  withered  away, 
because  it  had  no  deepness  of  earth.  There 
are  many  who  are  not  careful  enough  in 
seeing  that  the  foundation  be  well  laid — there 
are  many  who  do  not  count  the  cost  of  the 
undertaking,  and  so,  when  difficulties  ap- 
proach, when  temptations  or  persecutions 
arise  for  the  word's  sake,  presently  they  are 
offended,  and  turn  back.  There  were  many 
c 


26  0  N  w  A  R  n. 

■vvho  for  a  time  followed  our  Saviour  in  the 
days  of  his  flesh ;  but  in  consequence  of  a 
plain,  and  doctrinal,  and  spiritual  discourse 
which  he  delivered,  pointing  out  some  mat- 
ters which  they  had  not  duly  considered,  it 
is  said,  from  that  time  many  of  his  disciples 
went  back  and  walked  no  more  with  him. 
It  is  against  a  disposition  to  draw  off  from 
the  service  of  God,  that  I  would  direct  the 
strong  language  of  the  text ;  and  I  desire  to  be 
considered  as  speaking  to  every  individual 
who  has  ever,  in  anyway,  or  among  any  deno- 
mination of  Christians,  made  a  profession  of 
religion.  Let  me  warn  you  of  the  awful  dan- 
ger of  defection,  or  backsliding.  The  parti- 
cular portion  of  the  Israelitish  history  which 
is  before  us,  as  well  as  the  whole  tenor  of 
the  Gospel,  shows  the  tremendous  predica- 
ment of  danger  in  which  that  individual  is 
placed,  who  goes  back  from  the  love  and  the 
service  of  God.     Just  carry  back  your  ima" 


ONWARD.  27 

ginations  to  that  period  which  this  history- 
contemplates.  What  would  have  been  the 
consequence  to  the  Israelites,  had  they  turn- 
ed back  ?  You  will  remember,  that  they 
had  on  their  right  hand  and  on  their  left  an 
untracked  desert  and  impassable  mountains — 
they  had  the  Red  Sea  in  the  front,  it  is  true, 
appalling  enough  ;  but  they  had  in  the  rear 
their  implacable  enemies,  thirsting  for  their 
blood,  and  panting  for  vengeance.  Had  they 
gone  back,  they  would  have  thrown  them- 
selves on  the  very  spears  of  the  Egyptians, 
or  with  a  most  dastardly  spirit,  have  invited 
those  chains  of  slavery,  the  links  of  which 
they  had  once  been  enabled  violently  to 
burst  asunder.  Now  the  case  of  real  Chris- 
tians is  similar.  They  have  obstacles  in 
front,  and  they  have  mountains  of  difficulty 
on  either  side.  I  shall  speak  of  these  at 
large  in  my  succeeding  remarks.  But  though 
they  have  these,  they  have  the  enemy  be- 


28  0  N  W  A  R  I). 

hind  ;  and  if  they  will  go  back,  all  that  they 
accomplish  is,  that  they  throw  themselves 
into  his  arms,  and,  as  heretofore,  will  be  led 
away  captive  at  his  will.  They  gain  nothing 
by  their  defection  from  God,  but  the  certainty 
of  earthly  slavery  to  sin,  and  ruin  to  their 
souls  in  the  world  to  come  ;  for  thus  saitli 
the  Lord — "  "Whosoever  puttcth  his  hand  to 
the  plough,  and  looketh  back,  he  is  not  fit 
for  the  kingdom  of  God."  And  again — "  If 
any  man  draw  back,  my  soul  shall  have  no 
pleasure  in  him."  And  again,  speaking  of 
faithful  Christians,  the  Apostle  says — "  But 
we  are  not  of  such  as  draw  back  unto  perdi- 
tion, but  of  such  as  believe  to  the  saving  of 
the  soul."  To  every  individual,  then,  in  the 
Christian  profession,  there  is  a  caution  here 
against  going  back.  And  I  caution  you  to 
be  alarmed  the  very  moment  when  you  be- 
gin to  feel  yourselves  growing  weary  in  the 
performance  of  your  duties,  or  in  exercising 


ONWARD,  29 

the  graces  and  virtues  of  the  Christian  life, 
or  in  mortifying  those  fleshly  lusts  which 
war  against  the  soul.  BeAvare,  lest  though 
you  may  maintain  an  observance  of  public 
duties,  you  should  grow  remiss  in  those 
which  are  private.  Be  alarmed  when  your 
delight  in  the  Scripture  languishes,  and  when 
your  meditations  are  tedious,  and  you  grow 
cold  and  formal.  Beware  when  your  faith 
and  love  operate  with  less  vital  energy.  Be- 
ware when  your  besetting  sins  begin  to  re- 
gain their  strength,  and  to  resume  their  as- 
cendency. In  a  case  like  this,  you  are  in 
danger  the  most  imminent ;  and  are  likely  to 
fall  into  the  hands  of  an  adversary  who  is 
constantly  going  about  seeking  whom  he  may 
devour.  Your  only  safe  course  is  to  rouse 
to  a  sense  of  the  danger.  Look  about  you 
with  an  awakened  interest,  and  when  there  is 
before  you  the  least  intimation  that  you  may 
be  losing  the  interest  you  have  felt  in  eternal 
c2 


30  ONWARD. 

and  spiritual  things,  shake  ofT,  by  an  imme- 
diate efibrt,  all  the  solicitations  of  sloth — lis- 
ten to  the  word  of  Clod,  and  obey  it  instant- 
ly— "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that 
they  go  forward." 

In  adapting  this  part  of  my  subject  parti- 
cularly to  the  case  of  those  among  my  readers 
who  have  lately  taken  on  themselves  the  obli- 
gations of  the  baptismal  covenant,  and  have 
assumed  the  gready  responsible  situation  of 
the  open  and  avowed  disciples  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  I  would  with  the  deepest  and 
most  anxious  solicitude  caution  them  against 
the  danger  of  declension  in  religion.  It  is  a 
rock  on  which  faith  and  a  good  conscience 
are  more  likely  to  be  shipwrecked,  because 
that  rock  at  present  lies  more  concealed  from 
their  view.  I  know  that  they  are  hardly 
willing  to  suppose  that  there  is  danger  of 
their  forsaking  God.  But  it  is  a  matter 
founded  on  the  melancholy  recollections  o 


ONWARD.  31 

experience,  that  there  is  always  danger,  so 
deceitful  is  the  heart,  and  so  alluring  is  the 
world.     Let  the  case  of  Demas,  mentioned 
by  the  Apostle  Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  Timo- 
thy, ever  be  in  your  minds.     This  disciple 
had  run  well  for  a  time,  and  is  mentioned  in 
several  places  of  the  Apostolic  Epistles  with 
distinguished  commendation ;   but  here,  in 
the  Epistle  to  Timothy,  we  have  the  brief 
record  of  his  defection,  and  its  melancholy 
cause.     "  Demas  hath  forsaken  me,  having 
loved  the  present  world."     To  you  there  is 
incalculable  danger  of  falling  into  supineness 
and  indifference,  into  worldliness,  then  licen- 
tiousness, then  backsliding,   and  then  per- 
haps apostacy — the  crucifying  of  the  Son  of 
God  afresh,  and  putting  him   to  an   open 
shame.     There  is  danger  not  only  of  thus 
ruining  your  own  souls,  but  of  giving  the 
enemies  of  your  Master  occasion  to  blaspheme, 
and  thus  bringing  the  contempt  of  the  un- 


32  ONWARD. 

godly  on  a  cause  which  sliould  be  as  dear 
to  you  as  your  own  souls.  Should  you  ever 
decline  from  the  seriousness  and  the  holiness 
now  apparent  in  your  solemn  profession,  the 
difficulty  of  again  arresting  your  attention  to 
serious  things  would  be  almost  infinitely  en- 
hanced. You  will  be  likely  to  wander  fur- 
ther and  further  from  God,  and  if  you  should 
ever  again — which  is  in  the  highest  degree 
improbable — if  you  should  ever  again  be  re- 
newed to  repentance,  it  would  be  through 
paths  of  difficulty,  and  through  bitterness  of 
sorrows,  of  which  you  now  have  no  possible 
conception.  "What  I  have  said,  then,  to  all 
professors  of  religion  to  whom  this  little 
work  may  come,  I  desire  to  say  to  you  with 
emphasis — beware  that  you  go  not  back. 
Take  you  one  backward  step,  and  your  spi- 
ritual foe,  like  the  blood-thirsty  host  of 
Egypt,  will  seize  you,  and  then  the  captivity 
of  sin  will  ho  vour  lot  on  earth — the  wasres  of 


ONWARD.  33 

sin,  which  is  eternal  death,  your  portion  in 
the  world  to  come.  Your  eternal  welfare  is 
jeopardized  the  moment  you  turn  back. 
Your  only  safety  lies  in  your  ready  and  in- 
stant and  unvarying  obedience  to  the  order — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go 
forward." 

I  come  now  to  take  up  my 

IVth.  general  division,  and  consider  as  a 
consequence  from  the  preceding  observa- 
tions, that  the  terms  of  this  exhortation  im- 
peratively demand  advancement — "  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  for- 
ward." 

I  have  said  that  these  words  are  opposed 
to  standing  still  in  religion.  But  to  speak 
more  correctly,  I  might  have  said,  that  in  re- 
ligion there  is  no  such  thing  as  standing  still. 
It  is  progression,  or  it  is  retrogradation  ;  for 
if  we  are  not  advancing  in  the  love  and  ser- 


34  ONWARD. 

vice  of  God,  we  are  daily  and  hourly  the 
losers  ;  wc  shall  at  last  make  shipwreck  of 
faith  and  a  good  conscience,  and  at  the 
bottom  of  the  hill  find  ourselves  outcasts 
from  God.  That  religion  which  is  a  grace- 
implanted  principle,  is  invariably  represented 
as  of  a  progressive  character.  I  care  not 
what  may  be  the  measure  of  our  attainment, 
great  or  small,  they  must  be  forgotten  in  a 
comparative  sense ;  and  the  constant  desire 
of  our  souls  must  be  for  more  grace,  more 
knowledge,  more  faith,  more  love,  more  hu- 
mility, more  holiness,  more  complete  con- 
formity to  the  will  and  the  ways  of  God. 
The  only  religion  which  is  worth  the  name 
of  religion,  which  can  bring  peace  to  the 
soul  in  the  hour  of  alHiction  and  the  day  of 
death,  and  which  can  bear  the  fiery  trial  of 
the  day  of  judgment,  is  a  growing  religion, — 
a  religion  which  deepens  day  by  day  within 
our  bosoms  our  exercise  of  repentance  and 


ONWARD.  35 

of  faith,  our  views  of  the  exceeding  sinful- 
ness of  sin,  and  adds  in  the  same  propoition 
to  our  perception  of  the  grace  and  mercy 
which  have  rescued  us  from  ruin ; — a  religion 
which  makes  the  fire  of  devotion  burn  with 
a  purer  and  a  brighter  flame,  the  longer  it 
remains  on  the  altar  of  our  hearts,  and  fixes 
the  soul  more  and  more  closely  on  its  God 
and  Saviour.  I  am  aware  that  through  the 
force  of  temptation  and  the  deceitfulness  of 
the  heart,  there  may  be  occasional  declen- 
sions where  faith  and  hope  may  not  wholly 
be  shipwrecked.  I  am  aware  that  the  indi- 
vidual may  not  always  be  able  to  enjoy  a 
comfortable  persuasion  of  his  progress,  even 
when  he  is  actually  going  onward ;  but  not- 
withstanding this,  we  have  the  authority  of 
Scripture  to  conclude,  that  where  religion  is 
genuine,  it  is  habitually  going  on  to  perfec- 
tion. Timid  disciples  are  sometimes  apt  to 
be  discouraged,  when  they  do  not  appear  to 


36  O  N  W  A  R  P. 

make  the  progress  they  desire ;  but  tlie  very 
fact  of  earnest  desire  and  cfTort  is  proof  of 
advancement,  and  their  case  forms  no  real 
exception  to  the  rule  laid  down.  True  reli- 
gion is  like  a  healthy  plant,  which  will  strike 
its  roots  deeper  and  deeper  in  the  soil,  and 
send  its  branches  more  highly  and  exten- 
sively abroad,  and  bring  forth  in  its  season 
more  and  more  fruit,  till  it  be  removed  to  the 
paradise  of  God.  The  religion  which  does 
not  grow,  is  like  a  plant  at  whose  roots  some 
devouring  worm  is  carrying  on  his  ravages. 
You  see  the  deadly  effects  in  the  deteriorated 
quality,  and  in  the  diminished  quantity  of  the 
fruits  produced — by  and  bye  even  its  leaves 
begin  to  wither  and  to  drop  away — the  vital 
sap  ceases  to  flow — and  it  becomes  a  lifeless 
and  useless  trunk,  fit  only  for  the  flames. 
Of  every  professor  of  religion  I  ask  that 
this  matter  be  seriously  considered.  Oh 
never,  never  rest  satisfied  with  any  present 


ONWARD.  37 

attainment ;  God  tells  you  in  mercy  to  your 
souls,  as  he  did  to  his  ancient  people  in  my 
text — "  Go  forward." 

In  adapting  this  part  of  my  subject  to  any 
who  have  recently  professed  themselves  dis- 
ciples of  the  Lord,  I  must  in  affection  and 
fidelity  guard  them  against  the  temptation  of 
supposing,  that  progression  is  not  so  impera- 
tive as  I  have  represented.  To  have  come 
before  the  Lord,  and  to  have  avowed  them- 
selves to  be  his,  they  have  considered  as  a 
bounden  duty.  In  this  they  have  done  well, 
but  remember  that  the  path  of  religion  is 
yet  before  you,  and  all  its  graces  and  virtues 
remain  to  be  exhibited  in  the  living  and 
speaking  influence  of  your  lives  and  conver- 
sation. Will  your  consciences  remain  sa- 
tisfied and  at  ease,  because  one  portion  of 
your  obligation  is  accomplished?  If  this 
were  your  feeling,  I  would  venture  to  say, 
that  you  were  already  going  backward,  and 

D 


461808 


38  ONWARD. 

were  rapidly  travelling  towards  the  land  of 
your  previous   captivity.     I  will  hope  and 
pray  that  you  may  be  induced  to  press  on- 
ward ;  that  you   may   ever  shudder  at  the 
danger  of  a  retrograde  movement,  and  never 
rest  satisfied  without  that  growth   in  grace 
which  makes  the  Christian's  path  "as  the 
shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and  more 
unto  the  perfect  day."  For  your  serious  me- 
ditation, the  words  of  the  Lord  arc  specially 
intended — "Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward."     If  I  am  asked  whe- 
ther there  may  not  be  a  class  of  persons  who 
without  being  actually  professors  of  religion, 
may  still  be   exhorted  to  move  onward,  I 
will  answer,  that  there  is  one  such  class  ;  I 
mean  those  who  are  at  the  present  moment 
under  deep  anxiety  of  mind  as  to  their  eter- 
nal concerns  ;  who  arc  struggling  with  difTi- 
culties  from  within  and  from  without ;  who 
have  not  yet  heard  the  peace-speaking  voice 


O  X  W  A  R  D.  39 

of  the  Spirit  witnessing  that  they  are  the 
children  of  God ;  who  have  not  yet  laid  hold 
on  the  promises,  and  are  not  yet  willing  to 
trust  their  all  unto  the  hands  of  their  com- 
passionate Redeemer.  Why  do  you  not 
burst  your  bonds  at  once,  and  in  the  instant 
surrender  of  your  hearts  to  God,  break  from 
your  dismal  captivity  and  taste  the  sweets  of 
the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God  ? 
Though  I  cannot  address  you  as  having  set 
out  in  the  way  of  religion,  still  from  the  land 
of  darkness  and  of  captivity  lift  up  your 
eyes,  and  catch  a  momentary  encouragement 
from  the  exhortation,  as  it  dies  away  upon 
the  distant  air — "  Speak  to  the  children  of 
Israel  that  they  go  forward." 

In  the  foregoing  remarks,  I  have  purposely 
omitted  the  mention  of  the  difficulties  which 
are  in  the  way  of  progression,  and  my  ob- 
ject has  been  to  bring  them  all  into  one  con- 
densed view.     On  this  part  of  my  subject 


40  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

we  derive  immense  advantage  from  the  his- 
tory with  which  this  text  is  connected.— 
Viewed  Avilhout  respect  to  the  miraculous 
agency  of  God,  there  never  was  an  order 
more  singular  or  more  impracticable  than 
the  one  which  was  given  to  the  Israelites. 
It  is  said  that  the  place  at  which  they  cross- 
ed the  Red  Sea  was  twelve  miles  in  width ; 
and  yet  while  its  waves  were  unbroken, 
they  were  commanded  to  move  onAvard.  But 
when  the  command  went  forth  from  God, 
his  power  was  before  them,  and  as  the  rod 
of  Moses  was  stretched  out  over  the  sea,  the 
sea,  obedient  to  its  Maker's  command,  rose 
a  protecting  wall  on  either  side  of  the  chosen 
people.  You  here  perceive  that  God  him- 
self removed  the  obstacle  to  their  advance- 
ment. To  the  way  of  your  progress  in  the 
Christian  life,  there  are  obstacles  as  many 
and  as  formidable  as  those  which  obstructed 
the  way  of  Israel  to  the  land  of  Canaan.     It 


ONWARD.  41 

would  be  the  height  of  unfaithfulness  for  me 
to  say,  and  it  would  be  folly  unparalleled  for 
you  to  suppose  that  the  way  was  smooth 
and  easy.  To  be  a  real,  faithful  servant  of 
the  Lord,  is  a  matter  of  the  most  difficult  ac- 
complishment, and  I  do  not  hesitate  to  re- 
present these  difficulties  to  you  under  figura- 
tive expressions  of  the  most  emphatic 
description.  There  is  a  wilderness  to  pass 
through  in  which  there  are  lions  in  the  way ; 
wild  beasts,  and  poisonous  creeping  things  ; 
pitfalls  and  snares  innumerable;  and  thou- 
sands of  foes  of  inveterate  malignancy. 
These  are  the  devices  of  the  adversary,  the 
oppositions  of  ungodly  men,  the  persecution 
of  mistaken  relatives,  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  and  the  unspeakable  evils  of  a  cor- 
rupted nature.  And  yet  in  the  very  teeth  of 
all  this  opposition,  the  language  of  the  text 
is — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that 
they  go  forward  ;"  for  in  the  advance  is  the 
d2 


42  O  N  W  A  R  D, 

only  prospect  of  salvation.  This  is  the  dark 
side  of  this  picture,  but  it  is  drawn  with 
gospel  fidelity.  Let  us  look,  however,  on 
some  brighter  exhibitions.  If  there  was  no 
strength  for  us  but  our  own,  and  if  there  wag 
no  agency  concerned  in  this  business  but 
that  which  belonged  to  ourselves,  we  should 
indeed  fail,  and  perish  in  the  wilderness. 
But  here  let  me  lead  you  to  an  idea  which 
appears  to  me  of  vital  importance.  Impossi- 
ble as  would  be  salvation,  by  our  own  un- 
assisted and  ill-directed  efforts,  yet  if  this  is 
the  object  of  our  intense  desires  and  deter- 
mined pursuit,  when  God  gives  the  com- 
mand to  go  forward,  he,  as  it  were,  promises 
to  afford  the  necessary  strength  to  over- 
come the  obstacles  which  are  in  the  path ; 
and  if  we  will  but  look  to  him  for  strength, 
and  draw  our  supplies  from  the  fountain  of 
all  grace,  we  will  find  that  our  real  strength 
is  just  in  proportion  to  our  felt  and  acknow- 


ONWARD.  43 

ledged  weakness.  And  if  any  of  you  will 
make  the  difficulties  of  religion  your  excuse 
for  not  pressing  forward,  let  me  tell  you  that 
you  are  deceiving  your  souls  to  your  eternal 
ruin.  Look  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  he  has  never 
required  that  at  your  hands  which  he  is  not 
able  and  willing  to  give  you  power  to  per- 
form. And  to  this  effect  is  the  whole  analo- 
gy of  Scripture  instances.  I  remember  one 
beautiful  instance.  When  Christ  commanded 
the  man  with  the  withered  hand  to  stretch  it 
forth,  he  knew  and  beheld  the  inability. 
The  hand  hung  lifeless  at  the  side  of  the 
paralytic,  and  to  have  raised  it  in  a  natural 
eflbrt  was  impossible.  Did  the  paralytic 
stop  to  reason  about  the  practicability  of 
obedience?  Did  he  stay  to  speculate  upon  the 
singularity  of  such  an  order  ?  Did  he  hesi- 
tate an  instant  to  comply  ?  No  !  Christ 
gave  the  command ;  with  the  command  there 
went  forth  some  mysterious  energy,  and  the 


44  ONWARD. 

man  whose  hand  hung  powerless  and  dead, 
stretched  it  forth  at  a  word.  I  care  not  for 
all  the  Avire-drawn  speculations  of  minute 
theologians  ;  a  fact  of  this  kind  from  the 
Scriptures  is  sufficient  to  put  to  flight  all 
mere  metaphysical  subtleties  which  might 
bewilder  and  distract  the  mind.  God's  com- 
mands are  to  be  obeyed  ;  in  the  performance, 
there  cannot  therefore  be  any  impossibility, 
and  thus  on  his  own  head,  if  he  perishes, 
comes  the  sinner's  condemnation.  It  is  well 
remarked,  that  the  same  all-powerful  voice 
which  calls  us  to  go  forward,  commanded 
the  deaf  to  hear,  the  blind  to  see,  and  the 
lame  to  take  up  liis  bed  and  walk.  The  ex- 
hortation of  the  Apostle  is  of  similar  im- 
port— "  xVwake  thou  that  sleepest,  and  arise 
from  the  dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  tliee 
light."  The  command  itself  will  neither 
quicken  the  dead,  nor  arouse  the  sleeper, 
yet  the  power  which  accompanies  it,  is  suf- 


ONWARD.  45 

ficient  for  these  purposes,  and  the  Lord  de- 
lights to  make  his  strength  perfect  in  our 
weakness,  that  the  power  and  glory  of  Christ 
may  rest  upon  us.  He  giveth  power  to  the 
faint,  and  to  them  that  have  no  might  he  in- 
creaseth  strength.  Whatever  difhculties, 
therefore,  may  obstruct  your  progress  in  the 
way  to  heaven,  you  must  still  go  forward, 
and  be  pressing  on  to  eternal  life.  Let  no- 
thing deter  you  in  the  pursuit,  but  say  to 
every  opposition,  I  will  go  in  the  strength  of 
the  Lord  God.  If  this  is  your  determina- 
tion, and  you  are  faithful,  God  will  bear  you 
through  as  on  eagles'  wings.  The  waters  of 
the  sea  shall  part  before  you,  your  enemies 
shall  flee  and  be  discomfited.  "  Every  val- 
ley shall  be  exalted,  and  every  mountain 
and  hill  shall  be  made  low ;  the  crooked 
shall  be  made  straight,  and  the  rough  places 
plain  ;  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  shall  be  re- 
vealed, for  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  spo- 


46  O  X  W  A  R  I). 

ken  it."  You  cannot  have  an  obstacle  mo- 
rally more  forniicla1)le  to  you,  than  was  the 
Red  Sea,  physically,  to  the  Israelites  ;  you 
have  the  same  God  to  command  all  the  un- 
ruly elements  of  opposition,  as  they  had  to 
command  the  waters ;  and  to  you  his  voice 
comes  with  the  same  authority  as  to  them — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward." 

Of  all  the  transactions  in  which  an  immor- 
tal being  can  be  engaged,  there  is  none  so 
important  as  the  dedication  of  himself  to 
God,  and  whether  that  dedication  is  out- 
wardly manifested  in  adult  baptism,  in  con- 
firmation, or  in  the  Lord's  supper,  it  is  alike 
most  deeply  interesting.  In  fact,  what  can 
there  be  more  important,  what  more  solemn, 
than  to  come  publicly  before  the  Lord,  and 
take  the  vows  of  an  ever-binding  covenant 
upon  us  ?  Oh  I  beseech  you,  my  friends, 
and  especially   those   among  you  who  are 


ONWARD.  47 

young,  let  the  solemnities  of  these  transac- 
tions never  depart  from  your  minds.  Reflect, 
I  beseech  you,  upon  the  weighty  obligations 
which  you  have  so  voluntarily  assumed — 
think  of  your  weakness,  and  exposure  to 
temptation,  and  flee  to  a  throne  of  grace  for 
spiritual  health  and  strength.  You  have 
given  up  yourselves  to  God  in  the  bonds  of 
an  everlasting  covenant  never  to  be  forgot- 
ten. Now — now,  most  emphatically,  you  are 
not  your  own,  for  you  are  not  only  like 
others,  bought  with  a  price,  even  with  the 
precious  blood  of  the  Son  of  God,  and  there- 
fore bound  to  glorify  him  in  your  bodies  and 
in  your  spirits  which  are  his,  but  you  are 
his  by  a  peculiar  self-dedication,  and  bound 
to  present  yourselves  a  living  sacrifice,  holy, 
acceptable  to  him,  which  is  your  reasonable 
service  and  your  most  imperative  duty.  You 
must,  if  you  are  faithful,  you  must  cease  to 
be  conformed  to  this  world;  you  must  be 


48  O  N  W  A  K  D. 

transformed  by  the  renewing  of  your  minds, 
that  you  may  prove  to  yourselves,  to  the 
world,  and  to  God,  M'hat  is  the  holy,  per- 
fect and  acceptable  will  of  God.  By  this 
deed  of  self-dedication,  you  are  the  servants, 
and  the  peculiar  property  of  God,  and  your 
crime  will  be  nothing  short  of  sacrilege,  if 
you  give  either  your  persons  or  your  talents 
to  the  service  of  his  enemies  ;  you  must  be- 
long entirely  to  God.  By  a  profession  of  re- 
ligion, if  you  are  not  hypocrites,  you  have 
become  dead  to  the  world,  and  crucified  to 
the  flesh,  and  it  is  a  robbery  of  God,  and  a 
fraud  on  your  own  souls,  should  you  devote 
the  time  which  to  your  own  souls  and  to 
God  should  be  consecrated,  to  those  vain 
and  idle  amusements,  those  gaudy  and  glit- 
tering trifles,  and  tliose  sinful  pomps  and 
vanities,  those  worldly  connexions  and  asso- 
ciations which  all  true  professors  of  the  reli- 
gion of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  do  most  so- 


ONWARD.  49 

lemnly  and  heartily  renounce.  Let  your 
faces,  I  beseech  you,  be  determmately  hea- 
venward ;  seek  more  and  more  the  influ- 
ences of  the  Spirit ;  rest  not  till  transformed 
more  and  more  into  the  image  of  God,  you 
are  enabled  to  shine  as  lights  in  the  world, 
and  adorn  by  your  conduct  and  conversation, 
the  doctrine  of  God  your  Saviour.  I  trust 
that  the  solemn  surrender  of  himself  to  God 
which  an  individual  makes,  either  in  baptism, 
in  confirmation,  or  in  the  more  matured  pro- 
fession of  religion  in  the  holy  communion, 
has  staid  your  choice  permanently  on  God. 
I  trust  that  these  various  and  repeated  bonds 
into  which  you  have  entered,  have  now  seal- 
ed your  vows  to  him  who  merits  all  your 
love.  I  trust  that  the  transactions  in  which 
you  have  borne  so  conspicuous  a  part,  have 
now  made  you  his  for  time  and  for  eternity. 
But  remember,  that  the  waves  of  the  sea, 
and  the  frightful  wilderness  with  all  its  trials 

E 


50  ONWARD. 

and  temptations,  and  the  Jordan  of  death,  are 
all  yet  to  be  passed  before  it  will  be  your  lot 
to  reach  the  heavenly  Canaan,  the  land  of 
the  believer's  promised  inheritance.  Forward 
— forward  in  the  love  and  service  of  God 
you  must  go,  with  unhesitating  and  un- 
shrinking fidelity,  or  never  will  you  reach 
the  rest  which  remainelh  only  for  the  people 
of  God.  In  the  solemn  exhortation  now  be- 
fore us,  God  has  not  only  given  you  a  com- 
mand, but  he  has  furnished  you  with  motives 
and  will  furnish  you  with  strength,  only  be 
ye  faitlfful,  and  press  forward.  The  wilder- 
ness is  before  you,  but  you  must  persevere 
unto  the  end,  if  you  would  be  saved.  Some 
of  you  may  be  called  away  by  death  before 
you  have  travelled  very  far  on  this  compara- 
tively difficult  journey  of  the  Christian  life. 
Some  of  you  may  be  permitted  to  travel  yet 
many  a  year  through  the  wilderness,  some- 
times cheered  by  the  smiles,  and  sometimes 


ONWARD.  51 

dismayed  by  the  clouds  of  heaven ;  yet  in 
all,  says  God,  fear  not,  I  am  with  you ;  be 
not  dismayed,  I  am  your  God;  "  when  thou 
walkest  through  the  fire  I  will  be  with  thee, 
and  through  the  waters  they  shall  not  over- 
flow thee."  The  issues  of  life  and  death  are 
in  the  hands  of  God,  and  of  him  alone  ;  and 
who  among  you  may  be  spared,  or  who 
among  you  may  come  to  an  early  tomb,  is  a 
matter,  dark  and  purposely  hidden  among 
those  secret  things  which  belong  alone  to 
God.  But  there  is  one  thing  certain,  all 
must  die  ;  and  when  that  fearful  time  comes, 
nothing  will  afford  one  moment's  satisfaction 
or  comfort,  if  Christ  be  not  at  hand  to  be  our 
helper,  all  our  hope,  and  all  our  desire.  Oh 
seek  his  favour,  which  is  life  ;  and  his  loving 
kindness,  which  is  better  than  life.  Let  the 
empire  of  the  world  be  rooted  from  your 
hearts.  Let  God  be  the  supreme  object  of 
your  best  affections :  salvation,  the  one  pa- 


52  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

vamount  concern  of  your  souls.  Build — as 
sinners  ever  must — build  on  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  alone,  as  your  wisdom,  righteousness, 
sanctification,  and  hope  of  salvation  ;  and  on 
that  sure  foundation  raise  the  goodly,  the  con- 
sistent, the  beautiful  edifice  of  the  Christian 
character  complete  in  him.  In  the  strength 
of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  power  of  his  might, 
set  at  defiance  the  world  in  its  allure- 
ments, the  flesh  m  its  suggestions,  the  ad- 
versary in  all  his  open  or  specious  attempts ; 
strive  against  your  own  evil  heart  of  unbe- 
lief in  its  continued  and  unhallowed  battle  for 
the  mastery,  for  you  can  do  all  things  through 
Christ  who  strengtheneth  you.  With  your 
faces  dcterminately*set  towards  Zion,  urge 
your  way  onward.  The  everlasting  welfare 
of  your  souls  depends  on  your  fidelity  to 
every  covenanted  engagement ;  and  it  is  only 
when  through  the  wilderness  of  this  world 
you  have  travelled,  that  you  will  descry  the 
land  of  promise  free  from  the  mists  which 


ONWARD.  53 

now  obscure  your  vision.  "  Be  thou  faith- 
ful unto  death,  and  I  will  give  thee  a  crown 
of  life."  When  tempted  to  halt  in  your 
Christian  course,  think  of  the  command — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward."  When  in  danger  of  backslid- 
ing, think  of  your  inveterate  foes  in  the  rear, 
and  of  Egyptian  slavery  again  ;  and  listen  to 
the  order — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward."  When  appalled  by 
obstacles,  go  to  the  Lord  to  make  your  way 
plain  ;  remember  Israel  at  the  sea,  and  let 
the  command  to  them  be  a  command  to  you. 
In  all  your  circumstances,  in  all  your  experi- 
ences, in  all  your  trials,  in  all  your  difficul- 
ties, hear  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  take 
courage.  Onward — onward.  Faith  and  hope 
are  in  the  van,  ruin  and  everlasting  misery 
are  in  the  rear.  It  is  God  who  says — 
•'  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward." 

E  2 


54  ONWARD. 

We  will  now  take  a  far  more  extended 
and  comprehensive  view  of  the  subject  of 
progression  in  religion,  though  my  remarks 
will  appear  to  be  confined  to  one  single 
point,  the  absolute  necessity  of  this  progres- 
sion. Under  this  general  head  I  hope  to 
present  you  with  such  views  as  may  be  car- 
ried home  to  your  hearts  with  a  solemn  and 
practical  effect.  "  Speak  to  the  children  of 
Israel  that  they  may  go  forward,"  is  the  so- 
lemn and  imperative  command  of  God,  and  I 
argue  the  absolute  necessity  of  progression 
in  the  Christian  course,  from  the  following 
w^eighty  considerations : 

I.  Progression  is  a  test  of  our  sincerity. 

II.  It  is  only  in  progression  that  we  can 
experience  the  present  comforts  of  religion. 

III.  It  is  only  in  progression  that  we  can 
hope  for  future  uninterrupted  happiness. 

IV.  Progression  is  necessary,  because,  let 
our  attainments  be  -what  they  may,  they  will 


ONWARD.  55 

fall  lamentably  short  of  what  we  ought  to 
iiave  attained. 

After  havmg  spoken  on  these  topics,  I 
shall,  God  willing,  consider  the  glorious  en- 
couragements which  are  given  to  progression, 
and  conclude  the  whole  with  an  appeal,  faith- 
ful, and  close,  and  personal. 

I.  Progression  in  religion  is  a  test  of  our 
sincerity. 

When  an  individual  sets  out  in  the  path  of 
religion,  if  his  desires  are  not  to  love  and 
serve  God,  and  to  devote  himself  to  God  a 
living  sacrifice,  it  is  to  be  feared  that  he  has 
set  out  under  some  fatal  delusion.  The  very 
first  step  he  has  taken  has  been  in  a  measure 
wrong,  and  he  will  travel  on  so  blindly,  that 
he  will  stumble  and  fall  by  the  way.  Love 
is  essential  to  the  perfection  of  the  Christian 
character ;  and  without  that,  whatever  else 
we  possess,  we  are  but  as  sounding  brass 


56  ONWARD. 

and  a  tinklinj^  cymbal.  Love  is  the  charac- 
teristic feature  of  the  Deity,  and  in  tliis  every 
one  of  his  children  must  strive  to  resemble 
him.  By  this  mark  we  are  made  known  to 
others  as  the  disciples  of  Christ,  and  by  this 
we  are  ourselves  assured  tliat  we  have  passed 
from  death  unto  life.  A  sincere  profession 
of  religion  pre-supposes  an  ardent  desire  to 
love  and  serve  God,  and  a  fixed  and  stead- 
fast determination  to  follow  after  an  increased 
conformity  to  the  holiness  which  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ  requires.  As  the 
path  of  the  just  is  as  a  shining  light,  which 
shineth  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day, 
so  the  Christian  profession,  which  has  about 
it  the  marks  of  a  godly  sincerity,  will  be  cha- 
racterized by  a  continual  growth  in  know- 
ledge and  in  holiness.  And  for  this  plain 
reason,  that  no  matter  how  much  a  person 
may  deceive  himself,  he  cannot  truly  love 
that  which  he  does  not  earnestly  desire  to 


ONWARD.  57 

attain,  and  after  which  he  does  not  ardently 
and  perseveringly  strive.  As  the  aim  of  a 
real  Christian  must  in  all  things  be  to  glorify 
God  in  his  body  and  his  spirit,  which  are 
God's,  so  he  will  never  rest  satisfied  in  any 
course  which  stops  short  of  this.  If  we  take 
advantage  of  the  analogy  which  is  afforded 
us  by  the  various  pursuits  of  literature  and 
science,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  convinced  that 
at  least  one  test  of  our  sincerity  is  the  pro- 
gi'ess  which  we  make.  For  no  one  will  be- 
lieve that  man  sincerely  desirous  of  having 
the  capacities  of  his  mind  enlarged,  and  the 
boundaries  of  his  intellectual  and  scientific 
attainments  extended,  who  sits  himself 
quietly  down  with  the  limited  advance  he 
may  already  have  made.  It  is  true,  that 
there  may  be  intellectual  and  physical  impe- 
diments in  the  way  of  progression  in  litera- 
ture and  science.  But  even  if  these  exist, 
yet  where  the  individual  has  become  sincere- 


58  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

ly  desirous  of  advancement,  they  liave  been 
overcome  as  by  some  migbty  effort,  and 
many  a  man,  both  at  the  bar  and  in  tlie  pul- 
pit, and  in  all  the  walks  of  literature  and 
science,  has  attained  to  eminence,  over  whose 
earlier  c (Torts  the  gloom  of  despondency  had 
well  nigh  been  cast. 

But  when  we  turn  to  the  subject  of  reli- 
gion, we  meet  quite  another  state  of  things  ; 
here  there  are  no  physical  or  intellectual  im- 
pediments which  may  hinder  our  progress. 
It  is  one  of  those  internal  evidences  of  the 
truth  of  our  holy  religion,  which  cannot  be 
got  rid  of,  that  it  adapts  itself  to  the  capaci- 
ties of  all.  It  is  suftable  alike  to  the  child 
and  the  philosopher ;  for  while  it  has  parts 
which  defy  the  grasp  of  the  mightiest  intel- 
lect, its  grand,  essential,  vital,  saving  truths, 
are  level  to  the  comprehension  of  the  poorest 
and  most  unlettered  child  of  Adam — and  in 
those  essential  truths,  and  in  the  practical  re- 


ONWARD.  59 

suits  which  flow  from  those  truths,  one  test 
of  sincerity,  in  both  child  and  philosopher,  is 
the  progress  which  they  make.  I  know  that 
there  are  many  who  call  themselves  Chris- 
tians, who  have  no  claim  whatever,  save  in 
their  own  arrogant  estimation,  to  that  sacred 
character.  I  know  that  there  are  many  who, 
with  just  so  much  of  a  religious  impression 
as  to  make  them  mere  speculative  believers, 
there  rest  upon  their  oars,  supposing  that 
they  may  then  float  rapidly  enough  with  the 
mere  force  of  the  current ;  and  I  know  that 
there  are  many,  very,  very  many,  who  are 
disposed  to  be  satisfied  with  what  is  a  mere 
cold  discharge  of  what  they  think  duty  to 
God ;  but  as  to  growing  in  grace  and  in  the 
knowledge  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  it  enters  not  within  the  narrow  limits 
of  their  relaxed  and  circumscribed  theology. 
But,  my  friends,  be  not  deceived,  God  is  not 
mocked — "  the  path  of  the  just  is  as  the  shin- 


60  ONWARD. 

ing  light  which  shineth  more  and  more  unto 
the  perfect  clay,"  Are  you  sincere  in  the 
matter  of  religion  ?  Are  you  really  desir- 
ous of  the  inestimable  blessings  which  it 
offers  ?  If  you  are,  you  are  abounding  more 
and  more  in  knowledge,  and  in  all  judgment 
you  are  daily  becoming  more  and  more  able 
to  approve  the  things  which  are  excellent, 
and  arc  progressively  filled  with  the  fruits  of 
righteousness  which  are  by  Jesus  Christ,  to 
the  praise  and  glory  of  God.  Are  you  sincere, 
you  will  listen  to  the  voice  of  God,  and  you 
will  comprehend  the  import  of  the  language 
in  which  that  voice  addresses  you — "  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  for- 
ward." Aye — that  they  go  forward — not  that 
they  linger  satisfied  with  Avhatever  poor  at- 
tainments they  may  have  made.  I  do  not 
doubt  the  sincerity  of  that  man,  or  that  wo- 
man who,  in  deep  humility  of  soul,  seems 
not  to  make  that  attainment  which  he  or  she 


ONWARD.  61 

may  really  desire,  for  the  very  feeling  of  this 
humility,  when  it  is  deeply  entertained,  is  a 
proof  of  advancement  by  no  means  low  or 
questionable.  But  I  do,  and  must  doubt  the 
sincerity  of  that  man  or  woman,  who  will 
one  instant  rest  completely  satisfied,  while 
there  is  room  to  improve  in  holy  conformity 
to  God.  "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward,"  is  the  authoritative 
call  of  God  ;  and  if  this  is  not  done,  there  is 
amazing  danger  that  God,  who  reads  the 
heart,  will  read  on  it  the  deep-marked  traces 
of  deceit  and  insincerity. 

II.  It  is  only  in  progression  that  we  can 
experience  the  present  comforts  of  religion. 

I  trust  that  I  need  not  say  to  readers  of 
common  reflection,  that  it  is  a  principle,  not 
only  of  religion,  but  in  the  philosophy  of  the 
human  mind,  that  enjoyment  and  advance- 
ment are  coincident.     An  inactive,  or  ener- 


G2  ONWARD. 

vated  state  of  mind  is  inimical  to  all  real  en- 
joyment. It  is  the  stretch  of  thought — it  is 
the  expansion  of  desire — and  it  is  the  pro- 
gressive accomplishment  of  those  desires, 
which  constitute  the  very  essence  of  intellec- 
tual bliss.  Indeed,  the  stretch  after  new  at- 
tainments— the  restless  anxiety  of  the  mind 
after  something  which  is  yet  unknown,  is 
one  of  those  natural  arguments  which  goes 
far  to  establish  the  presumption,  at  least,  of 
the  immortality  of  the  soul — that  presump- 
tion which  the  revelation  of  God  settles  so 
definitively  down  into  a  principle  not  suscep- 
tible of  doubt.  If,  then,  advance  in  know- 
ledge is  that  which,  in  a  very  great  degree, 
constitutes  intellectual  bliss,  and  if  the  capa- 
city of  advancement  is  that  which  serves  to 
stimulate  to  unceasing  effort,  how  sublimely 
does  this  same  principle  adapt  itself  to  the 
infinitely  more  important  circumstances  of 
religion.     I  hesitate  not  to  affirm,  that  a  reli- 


ONWARD.  63 

gion  in  which  there  is  no  advancement  made, 
is  not  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  and  cannot  be 
a  reUgion  susceptible  of  enjoyment ;  and  it 
is  this  simple  principle,  combined  with  other 
causes  not  appropriate  to  my  present  object 
to  mention,  which  serves  to  account  for  the 
small  measure  of  spiritual  enjoyment  which 
appears  to  be  the  lot  of  many  of  whom  there 
can  be  little  doubt  but  that  in  the  main  they 
are  Christians.  But  they  have  not  a  very 
exalted  idea  of  what  their  religion  is  capable 
of  doing  for  them — they  do  not  seem  to  take 
in  the  extraordinary  fact,  that  the  present  en- 
joyment which  religion  affords,  depends 
very  much  on  the  advancement  which  is 
made  towards  the  perfection  required  by  its 
Author,  and  their  Master.  Do  any  of  you, 
my  friends,  professors  of  religion,  do  you 
wish  to  enjoy  its  solid  comforts  ?  Ascertain 
first,  whether  your  successful  effort  has  been 
made  to  get  out  from  the  land  of  Egypt  and 


64  O  N  W  A  U  D. 

the  house  of  bondage.  Ascertain  whether 
you  have  actually  found  the  way  into  the 
path  of  that  true  and  unfeigned  religion 
which  takes  its  merit  from  the  cross  of  the 
Saviour,  and  which  takes  its  measure  from 
the  impulse  of  his  grace — and  then  you  must 
go  forward.  Let  the  important  tiuth  then 
be  impressed  upon  your  minds,  that  your  pre- 
sent comfortable  experience  of  religion  de- 
pends in  a  great  measure  on  your  progress, 
and  the  more  you  advance,  the  more  will 
you  be  sure  to  find  your  peace  and  joy  in 
believing.  For,  though  over  all  the  path  of 
your  pilgrimage  clouds  may  occasionally  flit, 
and  rain  sometimes  fall,  even  in  torrents  fall, 
yet  there  will  be  no  cloud  so  dense,  but  tliat 
Bome  bright  beam  shall  be  able  to  pierce  it, 
and  no  rain  so  heavy,  but  that  it  shall  sooner 
or  later  cease,  and  show  you  the  resplendent 
bow  of  promise  on  the  bosom  of  the  retreat- 
ing storm.    If  you  would  be  happy  here, 


ONWARD.  65 

even  amid  the  agitations  of  the.  world — if  you 
would  rise  to  the  standard  of  the  gospel,  and 
seek  for  that  tranquillity  of  soul,  that  peace 
which  passeth  understanding,  why  then  "go 
forward" — grow  in  grace  and  knowledge  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  Press 
towards  the  mark  for  the  prize  of  the  high 
calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  While  you 
make  no  attainments  in  holiness,  it  is  not  to 
be  expected  that  you  should  make  any  in 
happiness.  By  some  eternal,  in-eversible  de- 
cree of  God,  they  seem  inseparably  linked 
together,  and  he  who  would  enjoy  the  largest 
measure  of  spiritual  blessedness,  while  he 
pursues  his  journey  to  the  land  of  promise 
through  this  wilderness  of  sin,  of  sorrow, 
and  of  tears,  must  seize  it  as  it  invites  him 
onward — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward." 

III.  It  is  only  in  progression  that  we  can 
F  2 


66  ONWARD. 

hope  for  the  future  happiness  of  the  eternal 
world. 

It  lias  before  been  observed,  that  it  is  im- 
possible for  minds  constituted  as  ours  are  to 
continue  stationary.  This  would  seem  to 
violate  a  law  of  our  being.  Our  minds  are 
of  so  subtle  and  active  a  quality,  that  they 
are  always  in  the  advance  while  in  a  healthy 
and  natural  state — or  otherwise,  being  in  an 
unhealthy  state,  they  are  making  a  retrograde 
movement.  If  we  are  not  aspiring  after 
higher  attainments  in  holiness,  it  is  a  melan- 
choly proof  of  spiritual  declension — it  is  evi- 
dence of  a  heart  divided  between  God  and 
the  world,  and  of  which  the  world  possesses 
the  preponderating  part.  If  we  make  no  pro- 
gress, we  must,  by  the  very  necessity  of  the 
case,  fall  short ;  for  the  prize  of  our  high  call- 
ing being  iu  the  advance,  to  attain  it,  we 
must  forget  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
press  toward  the  mark.    Besides  all  this,  tlie 


O  N  W  A  R  D.  67 

measure  of  enjoyment  which  will  be  vouch- 
safed in  heaven,  will  depend  on  the  attain- 
ments in  holiness  which  are  made  during  our 
probationary  state.  And  it  is  one  of  the  most 
sublime  conceptions  which  ever  exercised 
the  mind  of  man,  that  all  happiness  is  pro- 
gressive. If,  as  I  most  truly  believe,  the 
happiness  of  heaven  is  the  enjoyment  of 
God  begun  on  earth,  stretching  out  through 
ceaseless  ages,  then  he  who  makes  no  con- 
stant advances  here,  disqualifies  himself  for  a 
happiness  which  is,  and  will  ever  be,  pro- 
gressive. I  know  that  if  a  man  is  a  Chris- 
tian, relying  on  the  merits  of  Christ,  and  of 
a  truly  converted  heart,  and  God  sees  fit  to 
cut  him  off  from  the  land  of  the  living  before 
he  has  had  opportunity  of  making  any  great 
advances,  he  is  safe,  because  he  is  in  Christ, 
united  to  him  by  a  living  faith ;  but  I  also 
know,  that  while  a  Christian  lives,  he  is 
bound  to  advance  in  holiness,  and  that  the 


68  ONWARD. 

measure  of  his  future  glory  depends  mucli 
upon  it.  If  you,  my  brethren,  would  attain 
to  great  measures  of  happiness  hereafter, 
•*  go  forward."  The  delightful  fields  of  the 
earthly  Canaan,  were  far,  very  far,  from  the 
spot  where  the  Israelites  were  encamped, 
when  they  heard  the  direction  of  my  text — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward  ;"  and  they  had  much  to  travel, 
and  much  to  do,  before  they  could  possibly 
eat  the  new  corn,  and  drink  the  new  wine  of 
that  land  of  promise.  Much  have  you  to  do, 
my  friends — great  progress  have  you  to 
make  before  you  can  reach  those  heavenly 
fields,  of  which  the  earthly  Canaan  was  but 
an  imperfect  figure.  Stand  still  in  religion, 
and  you  are  lost.  Stand  still,  did  I  say  ?  This 
were  now  impossible  with  you.  It  is  for- 
ward or  backward  with  you  all.  If  you 
would  indulge  even  one  faint  hope  of  ever 
entering  into  glory — much  more,  if  you  would 


ONWARD.  69 

have  the  very  highest  enjoyment  of  a  state 
of  glory,  every  year,  every  day,  every  hour 
of  your  lives,  you  must  hear,  and  you  must 
obey  the  command  of  God,  which  says — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward." 

IV.  I  argue  the  necessity  of  progression, 
because,  in  the  case  of  every  individual,  be 
his  spiritual  attainments  what  they  may, 
tliere  is  yet  abundant  room  for  improvement. 

When  the  Apostle  Paul  was  addressing 
himself  to  the  Corinthians,  in  that  noble 
chapter  in  which  he  so  conclusively  proves 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
he  breaks  out  in  a  kind  of  parenthetical  ex- 
pression— "  But  some  have  not  the  know- 
ledge of  God  ;  I  speak  this  to  your  shame." 
And  when  we,  my  friends,  take  into  serious 
consideration  the  standard  of  piety  and  holi- 
ness which  is  set  before  us  in  the  gospel, 


70  0  X  W  A  R  D. 

and  then  contrast  with  tliis  tlic  limited  ad- 
vancement which  wc  make,  it  should  not 
only  fill  us  with  fear,  lest,  having  a  promise 
left  of  entering  into  rest,  any  of  us  should 
seem  to  come  short  of  it;  but  it  should  also 
fill  us  with  shame  and  with  the  deepest 
self-abasement,  that  so  little  is  accomplished 
where  so  much  is  required,  and  so  much  can 
be  attained.  But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only 
do  we  fall  most  lamentably  short,  when  we 
compare  ourselves  with  that  exalted  standard 
which  is  placed  before  us  in  the  gospel ;  but 
we  cannot  bear  the  most  distant  comparison 
with  those  of  primitive  times,  whose  elevated 
piety  and  ardent  devotedness  to  God  was 
marked  by  continual  advancement.  There 
is  apt  to  be  a  faintness,  a  languor  in  every 
class  of  our  devotions  and  our  duties,  and  a 
lassitude  and  a  weariness  in  all  our  services, 
to  which  they  of  primitive  times  appear  to 
have  been  utter  strangers.     St.  Paul,  whose 


ONWARD.  71 

experience  is  so  amply  detailed  in  his  history 
and  writings,  was  found  indeed  to  lament 
that  he  had  not  yet  attained,  neither  was  he  as 
yet  altogether  perfect;  but  his  conduct  show- 
ed forth  the  habit  and  the  disposition  of  his 
soul.  He  pressed  forward  through  hosts  of 
difficulties  which  would  now  appal  the  stout- 
est hearts,  and  he  rested  not  even  when  on 
the  borders  of  the  promised  land;  he  could 
say,  "  I  have  fought  a  good  fight ;  I  have 
finished  my  course  ;  I  have  kept  the  faith — 
henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  a  crown  of 
righteousness,  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous 
Judge,  will  give  me  at  that  day."  Compared 
with  what  they  ought,  how  little  do  the  mat- 
ters of  religion  actually  affect  our  hearts,  and 
how  wretched  is  the  progress  which  is  made 
even  by  the  most  among  those  who  call  them- 
selves Christians.  When  the  great  work  of 
redemption  by  the  blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  is  placed  before  us  in  all  its  grand  pe- 


72  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

culiarities,  how  little,  comparatively,  does  it 
interest  or  impress  our  hearts.  Viewed  un- 
der all  its  circumstances,  how  cold  and  negli- 
gent is  our  love  towards  him,  and  often  how 
difficult  is  it  to  persuade  ourselves  that  we 
have  any  real  love  to  the  Saviour  ;  and  how 
defective  must  that  principle  be,  which  re- 
quires so  diligent  an  examination,  and  often 
through  sighs  and  tears,  before  it  can  be  dis- 
covered. I  do  not  wonder  that  the  language 
of  the  hymn  is  so  often,  and  so  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  the  condition  of  many  of  the 
professed  and  even  real  friends  of  the  Lord 
Jesus : 

When  I  turn  mine  eyes  within, 

O  how  dark  and  vain  and  wild. 
Prone  to  unbelief  and  sin. 

Can  I  deem  myself  thy  child  ? 
Lord  my  God,  I  long  to  know, 

Oft  it  causes  anxious  thought. 
Do  I  love  thco,  Lord,  or  no, 

Am  I  thine,  or  am  I  not  ? 


ONWARD.  73 

Where  is  that  professor  of  religion  to  be 
found — no  matter  how  long  or  how  short  the 
time  since  he  gave  his  heart  to  God — where 
is  that  one  to  be  found  in  whose  religious 
character  there  is  no  room  for  improvement  ? 
Who  is  there  that  ought  not  to  love  the 
Lord  with  more  intensity,  and  serve  him 
with  a  purer  zeal  ?  Who  is  there  that  ought 
not  to  feel  the  import  of  the  sentiment : 

Saviour  let  me  love  Thee  more. 

If  I  love  at  all  I  pray, 
If  I  have  not  loved  before 

Help  me  to  begin  to-day. 

How  melancholy  are  these  considerations, 
and  they  are  not  alone.  How  faint  is  our 
gratitude  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  for  the 
unexampled  love  which  he  has  manifested  to 
us,  in  pouring  out  his  soul,  even  unto  death, 
for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation.  To  us  He 
should  be  inestimably  precious.  Our  love 
towards  him  ought  to  rise  into  one  continued 


74  ONWARD. 

flame  of  devotion.  It  ought  to  bear  us  above 
the  world,  and  fix  our  affections  upon  the 
realities  of  eternity.  IIow  faint  are  the 
traces  of  heavenly  mindedness  which  exist 
in  the  characters  of  the  generality  of  those 
who  call  themselves  by  the  name  of  Christ. 
How  little  genuine  humility  is  experienced, 
and  how  seldom  are  we  found  prostrate  before 
the  throne  of  all  grace  and  goodness  in  the 
deepest  humility  and  self-abasement  for  the 
little  progress  we  have  made,  compared  with 
that  which  should  have  been  experienced. 
A  great  and  evident  change  must  take  place 
in  aU  the  professed  people  of  God  in  rela- 
tion to  this  one  matter  at  least ;  for  while 
some  continue  satisfied  with  a  dull  and  al- 
most heartless  religion,  and  while  others  con- 
tinue satisfied  with  but  poor  and  feeble  and 
sickly  measures  of  advancement,  in  the  one 
case  there  is  no  mcctncss  to  be  partakers  of 
the  inheritance  of  the  saints  in  light,  and  iu 


ONWARD.  75 

the  other  a  condition  very  little  beyond  re- 
jection. In  all,  let  their  attainments  be  what 
they  may,  there  is  room  for  improvement, 
for  every  fibre  of  corruption  must  be  severed 
from  our  nature ;  every  particle  of  pride  de- 
stroyed ;  every  thing  brought  into  subjection 
to  f^the  obedience  of  Christ,  and  a  complete 
transformation  of  the  soul  be  effected,  before 
we  can  be  fitted  to  dwell  with  God  in  glory 
and  happiness  eternal.  While  there  is  any 
thing  yet  to  be  attained,  the  language  is — 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward." 

These  remarks  are  of  course  appropriate 
to  all  who  arc  professors  of  religion.  They 
bear  with  a  peculiar  emphasis  on  those  who 
have  lately  taken  on  themselves  the  vows 
and  obligations  of  the  Christian  covenant. 
To  their  serious  meditation,  particularly,  are 
these  solemn  things  commended. 

But  when  I  think  how  many  there  may  be 


76  0  N  w  A  n  D. 

among  my  readers,  who  have  no  claims 
whatever  to  religion,  who  arc  living  upon 
hopes  the  most  falsely  founded,  and  conse- 
quently fatal,  there  is  room  for  the  very 
warmest  exhortation — "  Escape  for  your 
lives  ;  flee  to  the  mountain,  lest  ye  be  con- 
sumed." When  I  think  how  many  there 
are  who  call  themselves  Christians,  ^nd  have 
satisfied  their  consciences  with  a  sickly  pro- 
fession of  religion  which  has  no  animating 
principle,  I  am  constrained  to  say — "  Be  not 
deceived.  God  is  not  mocked ;  whatsoever 
a  man  sowcth  that  shall  he  also  reap."  But 
when  I  consider  how  many  there  are  who 
actually  appear  to  have  left  the  land  of  Egj'pt, 
and  yet  who  linger  by  the  way  ;  who  take 
little  pains  to  improve  in  their  Christian 
graces  ;  who  have  little  love,  Uttle  gratitude, 
little  heavenly-mindedness,  little  disposition 
to  grow  in  grace  and  knowledge,  I  am  con- 
strained to  say — Look  about  you,  let  him 


ONWARD.  77 

that  thinketh  he  standeth,  take  heed  lest  he 
fall ;  the  enemy  is  in  tlie  rear,  there  is  room 
for  your  improvement.  God  calls  you  in 
terms  which  you  will  be  lost  for  ever  if  you 
disobey — "  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel 
that  they  go  forward." 

I  desire  now,  in  bringing  the  subject  to  a 
close,  to  take  up  the  glorious  encourage- 
ments which  are  given  towards  progression 
in  religion,  and  to  make  an  appeal  faithful, 
close  and  personal  to  all. 

On  the  subject  of  encouragement,  two 
points  are  offered  to  our  attention : 

1st.  The  gracious  assistances  which  are 
provided;  and 

2d.  The  glorious  consequences  resulting 
from  progression — "  Speak  to  the  children 
of  Israel  that  they  go  forward." 

1st.  Then,  as  to  the  gracious  assistances 

wliich  encourage  us  to  progression. 
02 


78  0  N  w  A  n  p. 

When  I  place  before  my  readers  the  de- 
mands of  religion ;  and  especially  when  these 
demands  arc  of  the  kind  contained  in  the 
preceding  observations,  setting  a  very  ele- 
vated standard  of  piety,  I  may  be  misunder- 
stood on  the  supposition  that  I  ask  that,  the 
performance  of  which,  by  some  inexplicable 
and  some  invincible  necessity,  is  placed  be- 
yond the  reach  of  men.  And  persons  are 
very  apt  to  excuse  themselves  against  the 
necessity  of  great  advancement  in  hohness, 
by  the  deceptive  plea  of  the  difficulty  of  its 
demands.  It  is  unquestionably  true  that 
God  requires  a  high  order  of  human  piety. 
But  is  there  any  man  so  impious  as  to  avow 
the  opinion,  that  God  demands  that,  the  dis- 
charge of  which  is  impossible  ?  Can  any 
man  suppose  that  God  places  in  his  way 
any  insuperable  difficulty?  Is  there  any 
physical  reason  why  the  demands  of  reUgion 
may  not  be  met  ?    Is  there  any  necessary 


ONWARD.  79 

moral  impediment  which  may  not  be  over- 
leaped ?  What  then  are  the  real  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  religion,  and  whence  come 
the  impediments  which  oppose  themselves  to 
progression  ?  Has  the  God  of  all  grace  and 
mercy  hedged  up  your  way  with  thorns,  and 
filled  your  path  with  stones  of  stumbling, 
and  rocks  of  offence  ?  No.  There  is  no 
difficulty,  but  the  want  of  a  disposition  to  be 
greatly  and  devotedly  religious.  I  see  the 
same  features  spread  over  the  face  of  the 
present  generation  which  the  Apostle  saw  on 
the  face  of  the  generation  which  is  past — 
"light  is  come  into  the  world,  but  men  love 
darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  are  evil" — and  therefoi-e  the  difficulties 
with  which  men  first  invest  religion  are 
made  the  ready  excuse  for  its  total  neglect 
or  a  dull  and  lifeless  pursuit.  But  these  dif- 
ficulties are  all  of  your  own  creation,  and 
besides  that  your  eyes  are  shut  as  to  the  fa- 


80 


ONWARD. 


cilities  which  are  attached  to  this  all-impor- 
tant business.  God  docs  not  expect,  and 
God  docs  not  ask  it  of  you,  by  your  own 
independent  and  worthless  efforts,  to  meet 
the  demands  of  religion.  This  would  be  in- 
consistent with  the  purposes  of  his  grace, 
and  inconsistent  with  the  revealed  plans  of 
his  mercy.  If  by  an  independent  effort  you 
could  accomplish  this,  you  would  have 
whereof  to  glory,  and  salvation  would  at 
once  lose  the  freeness  of  its  offer,  and  the 
freeness  of  its  accomplishment.  But  while 
God  makes  the  demands  which  I  have  an- 
nounced, he  has  set  before  you  the  methods 
in  which  that  demand  is  to  be  met,  and  leaves 
you  without  excuse  when  those  methods  are 
not  adopted.  Have  I  called  upon  you  this 
day  in  the  language  of  the  leader  of  Israel, 
to  "  go  forward?" — I  have  only  called  upon 
you  to  do  that  which  God  demands,  and 
which  God  can  surely  enable  you  to  per- 


ONWARD.  81 

form.  Says  an  Apostle,  "  I  can  do  all  things 
through  Christ  who  strengtheneth  me,"  and 
it  may  not  be  too  much  to  assert,  that  in  a 
moral  point  of  view,  there  is  nothing  impos- 
sible to  the  man  who  puts  his  trust  in  the 
Lord,  and  stays  himself  upon  his  God.  Be- 
fore you  make  any  excuse,  can  you  answer 
it  to  your  own  consciences  whether  your  de- 
pendence is  upon  the  Lord  ?  Do  you  Icnow 
and  feel  the  force  of  the  declarations — "  If 
any  man  among  you  lack  wisdom,  let  him 
ask  of  God  who  giveth  to  all  men  liberally 
and  upbraideth  not,  and  it  shall  be  given — 
but  let  him  ask  in  faith,  nothing  wavering." 
And  again  :  "  Ask  and  ye  shall  have,  seek 
and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be 
opened  unto  you." — "  Seek  ye  the  Lord 
while  he  may  be  found,  call  ye  upon  him 
while  he  is  near :  let  the  wicked  forsake  his 
"way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts, 
and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord,  and  he 


82  ONWARD. 

will  have  mercy  upon  him,  and  to  our  God 
for  he  will  abundantly  pardon  him."  Before 
one  excuse  can  be  urged  for  a  neglect  of  re- 
ligion, and  before  a  shadow  of  apology  can 
be  made  for  a  want  of  progress  in  religion, 
you  must  be  well  assured  that  nothing  hath 
been  neglected  on  your  part.  It  is  here  I 
am  afraid  that  the  generality  make  a  fatal 
error.  God  never  fails  in  a  solitary  promise 
which  He  has  seen  fit  to  make.  He  has 
promised  to  faith  all  the  help  which  is  essen- 
tial to  the  accomplishment  of  his  demands. 
Over  your  heads,  as  over  the  heads  of  tlie 
children  of  Israel  in  the  wilderness,  is  the 
guiding  pillar  of  the  cloud,  and  if  you  do  not 
chose  to  follow  it,  whose  is  the  fault  ?  It 
leads  on  the  way  to  Canaan ;  if  you  prefer 
to  Ungcr  by  the  way  till  its  light  and  its 
shadow  are  lost,  then  if  you  perish  in  the 
wilderness,  you  perish  because  you  heeded 
not  the  offered  assistance,  and  turned  a  deaf 


ONWARD.  83 

ear  to  the  voice  in  which  God  himself  ad- 
dressed you,  when  he  said,  "  Speak  to  the 
children  of  Israel  that  they  go  forward." 

2d.  But  not  only  do  we  receive  encour- 
agement to  progression,  from  the  Divine  as- 
sistances which  are  offered,  but  from  the  re- 
vealed consequences  which  result  from  that 
progression.  The  end  of  our  faith,  says  the 
Apostle,  is  the  salvation  of  our  souls. 

When  the  children  of  Israel  stood  a  de- 
fenceless band,  on  the  borders  of  the  Red 
Sea,  they  had  no  adequate  conception  of  the 
delights  of  the  land  of  Canaan.  It  is  true, 
they  had  some  faint  conceptions  that  it  was 
a  good  land  and  a  pleasant,  and  a  land  which 
had  long  been  promised  to  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham. Alas  !  that  so  few  of  them  ever  realiz- 
ed its  joys.  But  they  knew,  that  between 
them  and  Canaan  rolled  the  angry  sea,  and 
spread  out  the  great  and  terrible  wilderness. 
Still  what  was  to  be  done  ?    The  sea  must 


84  ONWARD. 

be  passed  and  the  wilderness  must  be  trod- 
den, ere  Canaan  could  be  entered.  Upon 
their  progress  then,  in  a  certain  sense,  de- 
pended their  enjoyment  of  the  promised 
laud ;  and  its  verdant  fields,  its  rallies  thick 
with  corn,  and  its  hills  crowned  with  lofty 
cedars,  were  the  inducements,  under  the 
high  commands  and  authority  of  God,  to 
persevere  in  their  dreary  and  perilous  wan- 
derings. Oh,  how  rapturous  must  have  been 
the  pleasure  of  the  tribes,  when  their  feet 
once  came  up  from  the  Jordan,  and  stood  on 
the  solid  earth,  the  land  of  their  long-pro- 
mised, long-sighed  for  inheritance.  They 
found  it  indeed  to  be  a  land  of  promise — a 
good  land  and  a  pleasant,  a  land  flowing  with 
milk  and  honey,  a  land  in  which  they  could 
eat  bread  without  scarceness,  and  in  which 
they  lacked  no  manner  of  thing  that  was 
good.  But  why  do  I  speak  of  the  eartldy 
Canaan,  that  land  of  promise  once  so  blessed, 
once  so  prosperous  and  happy. 


ONWARD.  85 

Judeanow  sits  'neath  her  vvitli'ring  palm 

Wilh  desolation  round  ; 
And  Gilead'ssclf  can  yield  no  baliu 

To  heal  her  cureless  wound. 
Her  kands  upheld  to  heav'n  in  vain 
Are  compassed  by  the  victor's  chain. 

And  Salem's  might  is  fuU'n  now, 

The  Temple  razed  and  strewn, 
And  e'en  what  peace  had  left  laid  low. 

Its  ruins  overthrown. 
Her  warriors  slain  on  battle  day, 
Her  daughters  captur'd  far  away. 

The  fire  is  burning  in  her  heart, 

Tho'  quench'd  within  her  eye, 
And  tho'  she  weeps,  those  tears  impart 

No  joys  to  agony. 
Those  tears  are  like  the  streams  which  How 
From  tracts  of  lurking  fire  below. 

She  sits  beneath  her  with'ring  palm 

In  solitary  state — 
With  scarce  a  hope  to  cheer,  or  calnj 

The  horrors  of  her  fate. 
And  He  who  once  illum'd  her  path. 
Hath  now  withdrawn  his  face  in  wrath. 
H 


86  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

I  desire  to  call  your  attention,  my  friends, 
to  a  far  better  country — a  country  on  which 
there  can  come  none  of  these  reverses. — 
Earthly  Canaan,  once  so  happy,  was  a  type 
of  the  Canaan  whose  sweet  fields  arc  above, 
and  to  you  the  enjoyment  of  a  promised  bliss 
eternal  in  duration  is  held  out  as  an  encour- 
agement to  go  forward  ;  for  without  progres- 
sion in  holiness,  it  never,  never  can  be  re- 
alized. I  may  not  describe  that  celestial  Ca- 
naan. All  that  is  delightful  in  an  earthly 
paradise  would  here  be  utterly  inadequate. 
To  those,  who  sustained  through  the  perils  of 
the  wilderness,  shall  have  reached  that  happy 
country,  oh  how  rapturous  will  be  the  scene, 
and  oh  how  extatic  will  be  the  experience ; 
and  while  the  prospect  of  this  is  held  out  as 
an  encouragement,  it  awaits  none  but  those 
who  press  towards  the  mark.  And  is  not 
the  encouragement  one  which  is  competent 
to  excite  you,  who  have  professed  to  have 


O  N  W  A  R  D.  87 

laid  hold  on  Christ,  and  devoted  yourselves 
to  him?  Is  it  not  something  incalculably 
sublime  to  have  the  prospect,  when  once  de- 
livered from  the  ruins  of  the  present  mortal 
condition,  and  all  that  is  painful  in  the  pre- 
sent state,  of  entering  upon  a  life  of  perfect 
holiness,  of  full  and  eternal  bliss  ?  Is  it  not 
stimulating  in  the  highest  degree,  when  that 
land  is  set  before  us,  whose  sun  shall  no 
more  go  down,  and  whose  moon  shall  no 
more  withdraw  itself,  where  the  Lord  God 
is  an  everlasting  light,  and  the  days  of  mor- 
tal pilgrimage  are  ended  ?  With  this  faith, 
and  this  prospect,  and  that  hope  which  en- 
tereth  in  within  the  veil,  these  delights  have 
a  pleasant  subsistence  in  the  soul,  and  by 
their  constraining  power,  the  real  Christian 
must,  and  he  will  "  go  forward" — for  on  no 
other  terms,  let  it  be  distinctly  and  impres- 
sively understood,  on  no  other  terms  can 
this  bliss  be  realized.     By  all  the  glorious 


88  o  N'  w  A  n  n. 

promises  of  tho  j^ospel,  by  all  the  joys  un- 
speakable and  full  of  glory,  by  all  those  pe- 
culiar delights  of  whose  true  nature  and  cha- 
racter "  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man 
to  conceive  ;  by  the  distance  which  you  may 
have  yet  to  travel,  and  by  the  perils  and  ene- 
mies of  the  way,  you  are  exhorted  as  from 
the  very  mouth  of  the  Eternal — "  Speak  to 
the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  forward." 
If  you  stumble  and  fall  by  the  w^ay,  if  you 
refuse  to  press  onward,  with  a  constant  de- 
pendence upon  God,  and  yet  with  a  zeal  and 
effort  commensurate  with  the  object,  you 
can  never  realize  the  glories  of  the  heavenly 
Canaan ;  for  its  ceaseless  and  untiring  de- 
lights, the  full  fruition  of  its  everlasting  bliss, 
is  only  for  those  who  through  faith  and  pa- 
tience inherit  the  promises,  and  who,  in  the 
day  of  their  probation,  have  with  a  daily  ac- 
cumulating vigour,  and  a  daily  increasing  in- 


jO  N  W  A  R  D.  89 

tensity  of  desire,  pressed  towards  the  mark 
for  the  prize  of  their  high  calling  in  Christ 
Jesus  our  Lord.  The  word  ever  will  be— 
"  Speak  to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they 
go  forward." 

I  have  now  stated  the  necessity  of  progres- 
sion, and  have  laid  out  before  my  readers  the 
encouragements.  It  only  remains  that  I  en- 
deavour to  bring  this  whole  subject  to  a  close, 
by  a  faithful,  and  close,  and  personal  appeal. 

To  every  individual  who  calls  himself  or 
herself  a  Christian,  to  every  professed  dis- 
ciple of  the  Lord  Jesus,  let  me  put  the  so- 
lemn question, — Are  you  obeying  the  com- 
mand of  God,  which  says — "  Speak  to  the 
children  of  Israel  that  they  go  forward  ?" 
If  not,  what  manner  of  excuse  can  you  pos- 
sibly offer  ?  Every  excuse  which  you  may 
presume  to  offer,  dishonours  God,  and  con- 
demns yourself.  It  dishonours  God,  be- 
cause it  as  much  as  charges  upon  him  the 
h2 


90  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

failure ;  it  consequently  condemns  yourself, 
because  it  ploinly  cleclares  thut  you  did  not 
believe  the  testimony  of  CJod ;  neitlier  did 
you  reach  out  to  tlie  profTered  salvation  with 
all  its  aboimding  grace.  You  have  not  per- 
mitted the  importance  of  religion,  and  the 
commands  of  God,  and  the  glorious  encour- 
agements of  the  future,  to  make  a  deep  and 
lasting  impression  on  your  hearts.  And 
what,  my  friends,  must  be  the  end  of  all 
this  defective  view  of  things  ?  No  matter 
though  you  are  professors  of  religion,  will  it 
be  with  you,  as  with  those  who  have  pur- 
sued a  different  i^ourse  ?  Shall  you  ever  be 
permitted  to  overtake  the  man  who  in  the 
zeal  and  energy  of  his  Christian  endeavour 
has  run  with  patience  the  race  what  was  set 
before  him  ?  No  !  It  is  his  progression  in 
knowledge,  in  holiness,  and  in  love,  and  in 
sanctified  obedience,  which  stamp  the  charac- 
ter of   the  real   Clu'istian ;  and  where  no 


ONWARD.  91 

progress  is  made,  there  may  be  the  Chris- 
tian's counterfeit,  but  there  will  be  nothing 
which  shall  stand  in  that  day  when  the  re- 
finer's fire  shall  try  the  purity  of  every 
Christian  profession.  It  is  not  in  reference 
to  this  world,  my  friends,  that  I  am  much 
solicitous  about  you.  But  when  I  consider 
that  short  is  the  period  of  your  probation, 
and  that  soon,  in  the  silence  of  the  grave,  all 
your  opportunities  of  improvement  will  be 
shut  out,  I  look  towards  the  future  with  fear 
and  trembling  as  to  the  eternal  results  in 
which  you  will  then  be  involved.  Now  is 
the  only  time  in  which  you  can  grow  in 
grace  and  in  the  knowledge  of  our  Lord  and 
Saviour  Jesus  Christ ;  for  there  is  no  know- 
ledge, or  wisdom,  or  device,  or  work  in  the 
grave  whither  you  are  going.  If  you  would 
attain  to  glory,  you  must  work  while  it  is 
called  to-day,  for  the  night  cometh  when  pre- 
paration and  when  progression  will  be  be- 


92  ONWARD. 

yond  your  reach.  Are  you  this  instant  fit 
for  heaven  ?  Has  there  as  yet  passed  upon 
you  that  great  moral  change  than  which  tliere 
is  none  other  moral  fitness  for  a  state  of  pu- 
rity and  holiness  ?  Should  the  heavens  now 
burst  asunder,  and  the  last  revealed  elemen- 
tal fire  now  commence  its  ravages — should 
the  trumpet  now  sound  which  is  to  wake  the 
dead,  and  to  summon  them  with  the  living 
to  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ,  have  you, 
my  beloved  brethren,  professing  Christians, 
made  that  progress  in  religion  which  you 
know  is  demanded,  and  without  which  you 
can  have  no  qualification  for  the  presence  of 
that  God  whom  you  should  have  served  ? 
My  friends,  be  not  deceived — called  as  you 
are  by  the  name  of  Christ — professedly  as 
you  are  his  disciples,  you  may  fall  short  of 
the  kingdom.  You  may  be  satisfied  with 
weak  and  sickly  efforts,  and  the  necessity  of 
continual  progi'ession  in  holiness  may  never 


ONWARD,  93 

enter  into  your  imaginations  or  stimulate  you 
to  powerful  and  unrelaxed  exertion ;  but  then 
you  can  no  more  reach  the  heavenly  Ca- 
naan, than  could  the  snail,  Avhose  pace  you 
emulate,  compass,  in  his  small  span  of  life, 
the  boundaries  of  this  green  earth.  Christ 
hath  not  purchased  salvation  for  you,  and 
yet  left  you  at  liberty  to  disobey  his  com- 
mands ;  and  if  your  path  of  life  is  not  as 
the  shining  light,  which  shineth  more  and 
more  unto  the  perfect  day ;  if  you  neglect 
that  necessary  growth  in  grace  which  is  to 
bring  you  to  the  full  stature  of  a  man  in 
Christ,  you  have  not  a  solitary  hope  on 
which  you  may  build.  If  God's  word  is 
true — and  there  is  no  rule  of  judgment  but 
that  unerring  standard — if  God's  word  is 
true,  you  are  lost  beyond  the  possibility  of 
recovery.  The  calls  and  the  opportunities 
of  God  cannot  be  neglected  with  impunity ; 
and  if,  when  in  the  fulness    of   his  com- 


94  ONWARD. 

passion  as  well  as  in  the  majesty  of  his 
power,  he  calls — "  Speak  to  the  cliildren  of 
Israel  that  they  go  forward ;"  and  you  stop  by 
the  way,  or  linger,  Canaan  never,  never,  ne- 
ver can  be  yours.  I  leave  it  with  you,  you  who 
have  made  a  profession  of  religion.  Look 
to  it  well.  But  if  impressed  by  these  truths, 
you  determine,  in  the  strength  of  the  Lord, 
and  in  the  power  of  his  might,  to  press  for- 
ward, to  be  watchful,  to  be  persevering  unto 
the  end ;  then,  and  only  then,  can  you  hope, 
can  you  be  assured,  that  you  shall  reach  that 
rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God, 
and  in  the  land  of  your  promised  inheri- 
tance feed  in  green  pastures,  drink  of  its 
chrystal  streams,  and  be  with  God  while 
eternity  endures. 

I  presume  that  it  cannot  have  escaped  the 
observation  of  my  readers,  that  during  this 
whole  course  of  observations,  I  have  had  lit- 
tle or  nothing  to  say  to  those  who  did  not 


ONWARD.  95 

come  under  the  description  either  of  profess- 
ing Christians,  or  as  under  deep  and  serious 
exercise  of  mind.  It  is  a  fact,  and  a  melan- 
choly fact,  that  with  the  majority  of  those 
who  have  this  exhortation  in  their  view,  the 
subject  has  no  concern — they  have  not  been 
addressed,  and  how  could  they  be  ?  Upon  a 
subject  like  this,  to  the  careless,  the  uncon- 
cerned, and  the  impenitent,  I  could  have 
nothing  to  say.  As  to  them,  the  subject 
sealed  my  lips.  Could  I  ask  you,  my  dear 
friends  who  are  yet  careless,  to  go  forward  ? 
To  go  forward — where  ?  You  are  now  walk- 
ing in  the  broad  road  which  leads  to  the 
chambers  of  everlasting  death,  and  to  urge 
you  to  go  forward  would  be  but  to  urge  you 
to  accelerate  your  eternal  ruin.  Fast  enough, 
aye,  too  fast,  are  you  going  already  ;  and  in 
relation  to  you,  my  first  and  most  impressive 
duty  is,  that  I  seek  to  arrest  you  in  your 
downward  path  to  hell.     It  is  here  that  my 


06  O  N  W  A  R  D. 

duty  toward  you  is  evidently  concentrated ; 
and  if  I  cannot  succeed  in  this,  all  other  ef- 
forts arc  absolutely  wasted.  The  message 
which  God  sounds  in  your  ears  is,  Up — get 
you  out  of  the  land  of  darkness  and  of  death, 
in  which  you  are  sporting  on  the  brink  of  the 
awful  precipice  of  ruin.  The  message  to 
your  souls  is — repent  and  be  converted,  that 
your  sins  may  be  blotted  out.  The  message 
to  your  souls  is — Flee  from  the  wrath  to 
come,  and  seek  the  shelter  of  the  cross  of 
Christ.  Believe  and  be  saved — for  he  that 
believeth  shall  be  saved,  and  he  that  bclieveth 
not  shall  be  damned.  Go  forward  ?  No,  my 
friends,  rather  start  back  with  horror  from 
the  position  on  which  you  already  stand ! 
"Where  you  are,  there  is  no  possible  security 
— the  eai-th  beneath  you  is  crumbling,  and 
the  heavens  aboA'^e  you  are  gathering  thick 
widi  clouds — not  one  glorious  ray  can  I  dis- 
cover beaming  on  your  path.     It  is  without 


ONWARD.  97 

liglit  and  without  hope.  Go  forward !  My 
soul  shudders  at  the  possibility,  at  the  awful 
probability  that  you  ^vill  go  forward. 

"  Broad  is  the  road  which  leads  to  death, 
And  many  walk  together  there." 

"  Go  forward  !"  No — the  same  voice  which 
addressed  its  command  to  Moses,  "  Speak  to 
the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  forward," 
turns  in  infinite  compassion  upon  you,  and 
beseeches  you,  by  the  Avoes  and  the  tears,  by 
the  agony  and  the  bloody  sweat,  by  the  cross 
and  passion  of  Him  who  died  to  redeem  your 
souls — that  voice  beseeches  you  "  to  flee 
from  the  wrath  to  come,"  and  to  find  a  hid- 
ing place  from  the  storm,  and  a  covert  from 
the  tempest  in  the  free  salvation  of  the  Sa- 
viour of  sinners.  While  you  are  resting  on 
some  false  foundation,  or  while  careless  and 
unconcerned,  you  are  madly  rushing  on  to 
destruction,  from  these  heights  of  Zion  we 
can  only  say,  "  Why  will  ye  die?"  FoUow- 
I 


08  o  N  w  A  n  D. 

ing  out  the  testimony  of  Scripture,  I  ask, 
Avith  a  solicitude  more  deep  than  you  will  be 
disposed  to  credit — 

"  Sinner,  O  why  so  thoughtless  grown ; 

Why  in  such  dreadful  haste  to  die  ? 
Daring  to  leap  to  worlds  unknown, 

Heedless  against  thy  God  to  fly. 
Wilt  thou  despise  eternal  death, 

Wag'd  on  by  sin's  fantastic  dream; 
Madly  attempt  the  infernal  gate. 

And  force  thy  passage  to  the  flame  ?" 

Can  I  urge  you  to  go  forward  and  be  lost 
for  ever  ?     No. 

"  Stay  sinners — on  the  gospel  plains 

Behold  the  love  of  God  unfold 
The  glory  of  his  dying  pains — 

For  ever  telling — yet  untold." 

Oh  that  I  might  be  the  means  of  inducing, 
if  it  were  only  one,  now  careless  sinner,  to 


O  N  W  A  K  D.  99 

venture  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  to  humble 
himself  in  the  dust,  and  there  to  lay  hold  on 
eternal  life.  Then,  while  there  would  be 
joy  in  heaven  over  one  sinner  repenting, 
there  Avould  be  joy  among  the  children  of 
God  on  earth.  Then  would  there  be  another 
added  to  the  number  of  those  to  whom,  having 
set  out  on  the  way  of  religion,  I  could  ad- 
dress the  language  of  my  text,  and  pointing 
you  to  Canaan's  sweet  and  lovely  fields  be- 
yond the  swelling  flood,  could  say,  "  Speak 
to  the  children  of  Israel  that  they  go  for- 
ward." Oh,  careless  sinners,  why  will  you 
not  permit  the  God  of  all  grace  and  goodness 
to  address  you  in  the  language  of  encourage- 
ment ?  Why  will  you  force  him  to  declare 
in  his  wrath,  that  ye  shall  not  enter  into  his 
rest  ?  I  beseech  you,  by  the  mercies  of  God, 
that  you  no  no  longer  trifle  with  your  souls-r 
that  you  no  longer  slight  the  richel  o%'J^. 
deeming  grace.     What  a  pang  does  it  cost 


100  ONWARD. 

the  bosom  to  be  compelled  to  leave  you  with- 
out one  hope — yet  I  dare  not,  in  faithfulness 
to  your  own  souls,  as  well  as  in  fidelity  to 
God — I  dare  not  leave  with  you  one  word  of 
encouragement.  I  can  hear  nothing  but  Si- 
nai's appalling  thunder,  I  can  see  nothing 
but  Sinai's  terrific  lightning.  The  voice 
which  can  call  to  the  children  of  God  "  go 
forward,"  can  only  call  on  you  "  turn  ye, 
turn  ye,  for  why  will  ye  die."  Jesus,  your 
neglected,  your  despised,  yet  your  still  com- 
passionate Redeemer,  once  more  asks  you  to 
have  mercy  on  your  own  souls — once  more 
places  the  gospel  salvation  within  your 
reach — once  more  pleads  with  you  to  em- 
brace his  merciful  provision — once  more,  in 
agony  and  tears,  asks  you  to  attend  to  the 
things  which  make  for  your  everlasting  peace 
before  they  are  for  ever  hidden  from  your 
eyes.  What  more  can  he  do  for  you  than 
he  has  already  done  ?     While,  then,  I  still 


ONWARD.  101 

say  to  the  children  of  God  "  go  forward,"  I 
testify  against  the  ncglecters  of  the  great  sal- 
vation— Oh,  Israel,  thou  hast  destroyed  thy- 
self. And  the  only  prayer  which  can  come 
appropriately  from  the  heart  for  you  is,  that 
God  would  snatch  you  as  brands  from  the 
everlasting  burning.  Oh,  Avhat  a  distinction 
is  there  here  on  earth  among  the  privileged 
hearers  of  the  gospel !  Shall  this  distinc- 
tion go  onward  to  eternity?  My  dying 
readers,  why  will  ye  so  long  hold  out 
against  the  love  of  God  ?  Why  will  ye  not 
seize  his  offered  mercy,  and  be  holy  and 
happy  now  and  to  eternity,  in  the  full  accep- 
tance of  a  Saviour,  and  in  going  forward  in  his 
holy  service  for  ever  ?  May  He  mercifully 
bless  this  little  book,  to  the  good  of  your  pre- 
cious souls,  for  his  own  sake. 

Amen. 

I  2 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERS.i  i'  O.^'  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


,7 


V* 


,UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  268  464  3 


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